D’Tigers have failed to qualify for the 2023 FIBA World Cup in Japan, Indonesia and the Philippines after Cape Verde beat Ivory Coast in their final game of the qualifying window on Sunday to pick the final qualifying ticket from the group.

The win sees the small Island nation qualify for their first-ever FIBA World Cup competition as the Africa best third-placed team at the expense of Nigeria who finished fourth in the qualifying group. 

D’Tigers who paraded an home-based team for the final window of the qualifiers had exceeded all expectations when they defeated Ivory Coast and Guinea raising hopes of qualification but the odds had been against them from the start having fumbled with results in the first and second qualifying windows. 

The team would play their final game against Angola which would only serve as a dead rubber game.

Ivory Coast, Angola and Cape Verde are the teams who qualified from Group E while Africa’s new basketball powerhouse South Sudan won 10 out of 11 games to qualify as the best team in Group F while Egypt qualified as the second best team in the group. 

Nigeria’s chances had been hit from the start due to the crisis in the Nigeria Basketball Federation which led to lack of proper preparation for players attending the qualifiers.