Nigeria’s women basketball team D’Tigress have been ranked the 14th best national team in the world, according to the latest world rankings by the International Basketball Federation (FIBA).
The world basketball governing body released the rankings following the qualifying series for the FIBA Women’s World Cup billed to hold in Australia later this year.
It will be recalled that D’Tigress suffered a disappointing loss in their first match against China after arriving Belgrade a day to the start of the competition but bounced back to win their two other group matches.
They went ahead and defeated France 67-65 with a heroic 20 point comeback in the third quarter of the encounter before going on to seal victory over continental rivals Mali in their last game.
The four-time Afrobasket champions moved up a spot on the ranking to No.14 in the world and retained their spot as No.1 in Africa
They are followed by Senegal (30), Mali (37), Mozambique (41) and Angola (44) on the continental ranking.
The top four teams in the world remain unchanged, with the USA retaining the top spot, followed by Spain, Australia and Canada respectively.
Belgium leapfrogged France to the fifth position via resounding victories over Puerto Rico and Russia in the World Cup Qualifying Tournament in Washington, while the French women dropped to sixth.
