D’Tigers edge Guinea to reach second W’Cup Qualifiers round

Nigeria’s D’Tigers ended Guinea’s winning streak in Group C of the FIBA World Cup qualifiers with an 80-79 victory in Luanda on Friday, a result that secured their progression to the second round of the qualifying series, PUNCH Sports Extra reports.

The Nigerian men’s team went into the contest on the back of another tense 84-81 win over Tunisia on Thursday. Against Guinea, D’Tigers found themselves six points down after the third quarter but clawed their way back to snatch victory by a single point.

D’Tigers now join Guinea among the teams through to the second round, with their final Group C fixture against Rwanda coming up on Sunday, July 5.

Thursday’s win over Tunisia had already boosted Nigeria’s qualification hopes, coming after two defeats in the previous qualifying window.

Tunisia had beaten Nigeria 88-78 after overtime in the reverse fixture in November, but D’Tigers turned the tables in Luanda under new head coach, David Fizdale, taking the first quarter 23-21 before Tunisia levelled matters with a 23-20 third-quarter response. Nigeria regained control after the break, winning the third quarter 21-19 and holding their nerve in the final period, 20-18, to complete a three-point win.

That result lifted Nigeria to third in the standings on six points, level with second-placed Tunisia but two points behind group leaders, Guinea, before Friday’s win over the group leaders moved them further up the table.

Fizdale, a two-time NBA champion and former Miami Heat assistant coach who was appointed in May to revive Nigeria’s qualifying campaign, praised his players’ resilience after the Tunisia win.

“Collective and physical toughness down the stretch won us the game,” Fizdale said. “We did a lot of things wrong. We made a lot of mistakes that these guys have never made.”

The top three teams from each of the four first-round groups advance to the second round, which will be played between August 2026 and February 2027.

The twelve qualifying teams will then be split into two groups of six, carrying over their first-round results, with the top two teams from each group and the best third-placed team securing places at the 2027 FIBA World Cup in Qatar.