The Junior D’Tigress of Nigeria have wrapped up their FIBA U-19 Women’s World Cup campaign with a loss, finishing 12th overall in the tournament.
MFM Basketball Club standout Idumabo Beggi led the team with a game-high 18 points, but it wasn’t enough to prevent Nigeria from falling 71–96 to China in a classification match held today in Brno, Czech Republic.
Chinese guard Kejia Ran was instrumental in the win for the East Asian side, pouring in a game-high 25 points and proving a difficult opponent for the Nigerian defense.
Nora Ezike and Abigail Isaac, both U.S.-based players, contributed a team-high 8 rebounds each. However, their efforts were not enough to repeat Nigeria’s earlier group-stage victory over China.
Nigeria finished the tournament with a total of two wins and five losses across the group stage, knockout rounds, and classification games.
In the group stage, Nigeria opened with an impressive 93–88 win over China, but suffered a heavy 113–42 defeat to Canada and a 79–61 loss to Portugal. The Junior D’Tigress were then knocked out of the main bracket after a 77–51 round of 16 defeat—again to Portugal.
They bounced back in the 9th–16th classification bracket with a 68–58 win over Argentina, advancing to the 9th–12th place bracket, where they lost narrowly to South Korea, 85–79.
That defeat sent Nigeria into today’s 11th–12th place decider against China, who claimed revenge with a convincing 20-point victory.
The 2025 FIBA U-19 Women’s World Cup concludes today, with defending champions USA set to face Australia in the tournament final.
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