U18 AfroBasket 2024: Nigeria men and women teams play Egypt in opening game in Pretoria, South Africa

Nigeria U18 basketball men and women teams will this week begin the battle to pick one of the two tickets that will take them to represent Africa at next year’s FIBA U19 Basketball World Cup in Switzerland.

The men and women’s teams have been scheduled to open their campaigns against Egypt.

While the women will start Monday evening, the men will start on Wednesday.

Nigeria is among the 12 teams aiming to be crowned champions in Pretoria including last year’s winners Egypt and Mali who have claimed the title in two of the past three editions (2018 and 2020).

The twelve national teams will play 34 games over the course of 10 game-days from September 3-14.

There will be two rest days on 5, and 8 September.

The teams that finish in the top two places of each group and the two best third-placed teams will advance to the Semi-Finals.

And the finalists will earn the right to represent Africa at next year’s FIBA U19 Basketball World Cup in Switzerland.

Nigerian girls will face Zimbabwe on Thursday in their second group game before playing Uganda on Sunday. The semifinals for the women’s event will start next week Wednesday.

For the men, they will play against Angola on Saturday after opening with Egypt on Wednesday.

They will then play Uganda in their final group game next week Tuesday while the semifinals will start on Wednesday.

Both tournaments will take place at University of Pretoria’s Rembrandt Hall in Pretoria, South Africa.

The Egyptian men’s U18 team come to this year’s tournament in South Africa as the defending champions and the Pharaohs and Nigeria have the most titles, six each.

The tournament in South Africa will see two countries, Cameroon and Zambia make their debut.

Four-time champions, Angola lead the way in tournament appearances and this year’s tournament will be their 20th.