Baseball
Decade-Long Rivalry Reaches Its Peak as Nigeria Faces Mali in FIBA Women’s AfroBasket final
After Nigerian women conquered Africa in women’s football barely a week ago, the women’s basketball team are on the verge of repeating the same feat. This time, it is Nigeria’s D’Tigeres facing Mali in the FIBA-Africa AfroBasket final at the Palais des Sports Treichville in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.
This final match is a repeat of the 2021 episode. Both teams had also met in the 2017 semifinals when Nigeria walked away with a 48–47 victory, marking the beginning of their eight-year African dominance.
To get to this year’s title match, Nigeria on Saturday night beat Senegal 75-68in what was their toughest match so far.
Mali, on the other hand, overcame South Sudan by 76-50. Now, a clash that everyone has been waiting for is set up.
It is a continental rivalry steeped in history. Now, a showcase of talent, revenge, and supremacy comes to a head as Nigeria and Mali face off in the final.
Both teams arrived at this stage undefeated, steamrolling through group play, the quarterfinals, and the semis with clinical precision.
This is more than just a battle for a trophy. It’s a matchup with unfinished business that stretches back over a decade.
For both teams, it has been a decade of tension and turnarounds.
The fierce rivalry between the D’Tigress of Nigeria and Mali’s Lionesses dates back to the 2011 edition of the AfroBasket in Bamako.
On that occasion, Mali, playing at home, shattered Nigeria’s title dreams with a 71–62 win in the semifinals.
It was only the beginning of Nigeria’s heartbreaks at the hands of Mali. In 2013 in Maputo, the Malians inflicted two more painful defeats—one in the group phase (78–45) and another in the fifth-place game (57–50).
But fortunes flipped in 2017. In Mali’s own backyard, Nigeria edged a dramatic semifinal 48–47, marking the start of a new era of dominance. The D’Tigress went on to claim the title and haven’t looked back since.
They beat Mali convincingly in the 2019 semifinal (79–58 in Dakar) and again in the 2021 final (70–59 in Yaoundé). That final is now being reprised—a rematch four years in the making.
Road to the 2025 Final
- Nigeria came through Group D unscathed with wins over Mozambique and Rwanda. They dispatched Cameroon 83–47 in the quarters and edged past Senegal 75–68 in a tense semifinal clash.
- Mali, dominant in Group B, overwhelmed South Sudan and Cameroon before defeating Cameroon again 86–68 in the quarters and outclassing South Sudan 76–50 in the semis.
Meanwhile, the epic 2021 final clash is echoing. Remarkably, eight players from each side who clashed in the 2021 final are still on their respective rosters—a sign of consistency, experience, and unresolved rivalry.
In the current Nigeria squad are returning core of Amy Okonkwo, Pallas Akpanana, Sara Ogoke, Promise Amukamara, Murjanatu Musa, Ezinne Kalu, Victoria Macaulay and Nicole Enabosi.
Mali’s veterans from 2021 include Rokia Doumbia, Maimouna Haidara, Sika Koné, Djeneba N’Diaye, Aminata Sangaré, Fanta Sissoko, Kadidia Maiga and Alima Dembélé.
While the players may be familiar, the coaching dynamics have changed. Nigeria, formerly led by Otis Hughley Jr., now has a different bench boss.
Mali’s former head coach Luis Brizuela Carrion remains part of the staff but no longer calls the shots.
There’s also a generational contrast in the teams: Mali, with an average age of 24, is the second youngest team in Abidjan. Nigeria’s squad, seasoned and composed, averages 28 years—a crucial advantage in high-stakes games.
There are lessons from the last final they played. In 2021, Nigeria never trailed, asserting early control. Despite Mali winning the rebounding battle (49–39), they struggled badly from beyond the arc, shooting a mere 2-for-22, while Nigeria hit 7 of 17 from deep.
Mali will need more efficiency and composure to turn the tide this time. Aside from the 2025 championship title and bragging rights, this is about legacy. Nigeria could extend their reign and win a historic fifth consecutive title. Mali, on the other hand, may have their revenge and reclaim the continental crown.
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MFM women’s basketball club are in Monrovia, Liberia for the FIBA Africa Zone 3 qualifiers for Club Championship which begins on Monday. Seven teams are participating.
Nigeria and Cote d’Ivoire as well as hosts, Liberia are presenting two clubs each. The seventh club is from the Republic of Benin.
Nigeria’s other team is the Customs of Abuja.
In the MFM team are four players who qualified Nigeria for the U-18 World Championship in Serbia happening in 2025
Captain Wandoo Hembam Marvis led the U-18 team. The others are Haminatu Ayoka Ayodeji, Idumabo Beggi Pius and Abigail Isaac.
MFM team defeated Nigeria Customs to retain the title they won last year in Lagos.
The captain, Ukamaka Okoh was emphatic as she said that the club’s mission in Liberia is to pick one of the two tickets at stake and to appreciate the team financier and MFM General Overseer, Dr Daniel Olukoya for his unwavering support for them
General Ishola Williams (Rtd) is credited to be the man who introduced baseball to Nigeria in 1989 in Minna when he brought some instructors from the US. He was the first National Chairman of the Nigeria Baseball & Softball Association.
Ishola who has a knack for the development of baseball and other sports in Nigeria was at the just concluded Baseball5 Western Regional championship at the NIS Sports Complex Gymnasium of National Stadium. In this interview, he spoke exclusively with JOSEPH ODOEKWU about the troubles encountered by baseball and other sports in Nigeria. Excerpts
Sir, what were your reasons for the introduction of baseball in Nigeria?
There were three main reasons. The first was that I wanted to create an opportunity for young Nigerian athletes who were good enough in baseball to go to the United States and school and also play baseball there, just like it is in basketball and other sports that originated from the US.
The second reason was that it affords the athlete an opportunity to become professionals while being athletes in the US and some other parts of Asia, while the third reason was that I wanted Nigeria to compete favourably with South Africa in baseball which is the best team in Africa today and so that our players can benefit from all the opportunities that comes with baseball.
Were you able to achieve these goals?
Unfortunately these goals were not achieved and it is because of the obstacles in Nigeria
What are these obstacles, can you be elaborate sir?
The obstacles basically have to do with the Nigerian system and how it works. And till date, those obstacles that hindered the realization of those goals are still affecting other sports in Nigeria and that is very bad. And that is why till today Nigeria is dependent on foreign-based players to play for the country.
If you look at the basketball team that played for Nigeria at the Olympics, they are all based abroad and the same thing applies to even our football. In fact, if we take the government away from football today, football will die in Nigeria and yet football has been in Nigeria for nearly 100 years, but yet we are not ashamed. We think we are playing football and we want to win the World Cup?
What other obstacle is affecting baseball development in Nigeria?
Another obstacle affecting baseball development in Nigeria is equipment. When you look at baseball and softball in Nigeria the equipment are not made in Nigeria. So we have to buy them from abroad and they do not come cheap.
We need baseball playgrounds also, even though today we are lucky we have a baseball park in Ilorin which is of international standard, but are they maintaining it?
With all efforts we made to manufacture baseball materials in Nigeria, people are not ready to help. So there are so many obstacles impeding baseball and sports development in Nigeria. The obstacles are at the state, federal and even at the local government levels. There are directors of sports, ministers of sports that all they do is to squander the money, that’s all.
And they want us to win, they are joking. If there are no professional sports in Nigeria managed by the private sector or rich individuals, we are not going to get anywhere in sports
Has the standard of play in baseball met your expectations in Nigeria?
Of course it has not met my expectations and it will never meet with the rate at which we are going. And I do not blame those who succeeded me because it is not easy to overcome the challenges and obstacles that are in Nigeria.
Secondly, when you turn on your television or go to the pages of the newspapers, it is football you see mostly.
They manage to squeeze a page for other sports. Even if you look at the basketball that did well at this Olympics, the media gave them scanty coverage and as soon as this Olympics was over, you will not hear anything again about D’Tigress.
It is football! football!! fFootball!!! In fact, even in coverage of football in Nigeria, the main focus is on European leagues such as the English Premier League, La Liga and others all over the place.
Where is the room for other sports? And the truth is if you do not show other sports they cannot become popular. This requires common sense but I have found out that even the journalists go to where they will get paid, and I really cannot blame them because they have to earn a living. But they have also forgotten that they can grow with a sport.
BY JOSEPH ODOEKWU
Even though the Nigerian team did not make it to the final match of the Beseball5 Championship, one of the prime movers of the sport in the country, Dr. Ndidi Okereke-Onyiuike has remarked that the future of the sport is very bright in the country.
Okereke-Onyiuike who is a former director general of the Nigerian Stock Exchange and the first female stockbroker in the country said that baseball will be the second most preferred sport to football.
She was speaking at the NIS Gymnasium in the premises of the National Stadium, Lagos.
“We know that football is our most preferred sport in Nigeria, we don’t want it to die. But we want baseball to become Nigeria’s second most preferred sports”.
Continuing, she said: “I have lived in the United States of America and see how baseball is. It is a beautiful game and I know that if we nurture it very well here in Nigeria it will become Nigeria’s second most preferred”.
She added that she had been using her contacts to support baseball in Nigeria. She regretted that her effort and that of others have not yielded their desired result, even though baseball is now known.
“We know that the knowledge of baseball has improved in Nigeria, but its current awareness is not up to our expectations”.”But we shall continue to give our best to ensure that its awareness continues”.
She further charged the media to do their best in publicizing baseball.
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