Women’s Afrobasket: D’Tigress Annihilate Cameroon to Set Up Semi-final Clash with Senegal

Six-time champions Nigeria annihilated Cameroon 83-47 in the quarter-final of the FIBA Women’s AfroBasket Championship, to advance to the semi-final of the tournament and set up a clash with 11-time champions Senegal, on Saturday, August 2, 2025, at the Palais des Sports de Treichville, Côte d’Ivoire.

The D’Tigress who are chasing a historic 5-peat, after winning the previous four editions of Afrobasket, saw off Cameroon in stunning fashion.

Nigeria had a dominant opening quarter, which saw Cameroon register only nine points, with four coming in the first couple of minutes. Elizabeth Balogun put in great defensive efforts, Amy Okonkwo ran point, Nicole Enabosi’s fast breaks and strength in the finish, plus Amukamara’s playmaking and overall defence, were key in the D’Tigress’ early lead.

In the second quarter, Cameroon pulled back momentum, scoring as many points as Nigeria with 20. Nigeria who had struggled from the three-point line found their rhythm and used it to their advantage. The D’Tigress also took care of business, ensuring that they kept their defence clean, avoiding fouls.

Despite the surge in the second quarter, Cameroon capitulated. The third quarter was one to forget for the 2021 bronze medallist, as they went on an eight-minute scoreless run, only making a bucket with under three minutes to go. Nigeria’s defence was too hard to get across and the quarter ended 25-2, with Nigeria ultimately winning 83-47.

What do the statistics say?

Most times in sports, they say the final score does not tell the whole story, but this one did. Nigeria went on a 26-0 run, had a 36-point lead and led the game for 36:21 minutes. Cameroon’s biggest scoring run was 11-0 and despite that, their largest lead was four and they spent only 2:58 minutes on the front foot. The lead only changed hands once in the entire 40 minutes of play.

Although the Indomitable Lionesses began the game looking adamant, with Jessica Thomas and Maria Ewodo leading the way but that was their only spell of dominance as the D’Tigress got a hold of the game and never looked back in their bid to keep their title defence and five-peat chasing campaign alive. The side coached by Ahmed Mbombo Njoya was dominated 46-15 in paint points, 21-8 in fast break contributions, and 26-6 in points off turnovers. The Nigerian bench also dominated with a 42-15 advantage.

Speaking after the game, Nigeria forward Murjanatu Musa, expressed her delight in the team’s victory.

“We played as a team, enjoying the game by doing what we do best, and this is the result. We feel great about making it to the semifinals again. We’ll try our best to make it to the finals. We know them and they know us. We just have to do our thing and see what happens in the end.”

The victory not only sees Nigeria advance to the semi-finals of the FIBA Women’s AfroBasket Championship, but it also means that they have secured the fourth and final spot for African teams in the 2026 Women’s Basketball World Cup Qualifying Tournaments.