The Nigeria Basketball Federation has released lists of players in the boys and girls categories of the FIBA U18 African Championship to be held in Pretoria, South Africa, from September 1 to 14.
A total of 24 players (12 per team) will represent the country at the championship, featuring 12 topmost national teams on the continent, namely, Angola, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Egypt, Mali, Morocco, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Uganda, and Zambia.
Bassey Ekpo Effiong, Ezekiel Oluwatemitope, and Sani Samuel top the boys list, which also includes Azeez Sulaimon Olaitan, Daubuna Mutum, John Wilberforce, Precious Jonha, Duru Augustine Chideru, Abraham Boyce Hart, Kpee Favour Komene, Jovan Ojako Chiebuka, and Favour Ibe Ikedinachukwu.
The girls team includes Pius Beggi, Shehu Khadijat, John Patience, Hembam Wandoo, Idris Maryam, Tewogbade Mololuwa, Umeh Amarachi, Isaac Abigail, Ayodeji Olarenwaju, Iwuji Vivian, Samson Favour, and Lijirin Doyinsola.
According to the draw conducted on August 24, Nigeria are lodged in Group B, held alongside Egypt, Angola, and Uganda, while the full schedule of the tournament will be confirmed at a later date.
In the group phase, teams will face off in a round-robin system, while group winners and runners-up will advance to the quarterfinals and will be joined by the two best third-placed teams.
The winners of the quarterfinal advance to semi-finals, while the losers will play the classification games for the 5th to 8th places.
The classification game for Third Place and the Final will be played on the last day of competition, September 14.
The winners and runner-up of the tournament will earn the right to represent Africa at the next FIBA U19 World Cup 2025 in Switzerland.
Reigning champions Egypt and Nigeria are the most successful countries, with six trophies each in 22 editions. Angola follows with four titles.
The last edition was hosted by Madagascar, who surprised the basketball world by upsetting some household names on the continent before settling for second place.
