Nigeria's national basketball team narrowly defeats Guinea, advancing to round two of the World Cup qualifiers.

Nigeria's D'Tigers brought Guinea's winning streak in Group C of the FIBA World Cup qualifiers to a halt with a narrow 80-79 victory in Luanda on Friday, thereby securing their spot in the second round of the qualifying series.

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This win came on the heels of their tense 84-81 victory over Tunisia on Thursday, which had set the stage for their progress in the tournament.

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During the match against Guinea, D'Tigers found themselves trailing by six points after the third quarter, but they managed to mount a comeback and snatch a one-point win.

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With this victory, D'Tigers joined Guinea as one of the teams to advance to the second round, with their final Group C fixture against Rwanda scheduled for Sunday, July 5.

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Their win over Tunisia on Thursday had already given Nigeria's qualification hopes a significant boost, especially after suffering two defeats in the previous qualifying window.

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Tunisia had previously beaten Nigeria 88-78 in overtime in the reverse fixture in November, but under new head coach David Fizdale, D'Tigers were able to turn the tables in Luanda.

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The team took the first quarter 23-21, but Tunisia levelled the score with a 23-20 response in the third quarter, only for Nigeria to regain control and win the quarter 21-19 and hold their nerve in the final period, 20-18.

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This result propelled Nigeria to third place in the standings with six points, level with second-placed Tunisia but two points behind group leaders Guinea, before their win over Guinea moved them up the table.

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David Fizdale, a two-time NBA champion and former Miami Heat assistant coach appointed in May to revive Nigeria's qualifying campaign, commended his players' resilience after the win over Tunisia.

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Fizdale noted, "Collective and physical toughness down the stretch won us the game," and acknowledged that "We did a lot of things wrong" and "made a lot of mistakes that these guys have never made."

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The top three teams from each of the four first-round groups will advance to the second round, scheduled to take place between August 2026 and February 2027.

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The twelve qualifying teams will then be divided into two groups of six, carrying over their first-round results, with the top two teams from each group and the best third-placed team securing places at the 2027 FIBA World Cup in Qatar.