Nigeria’s senior women’s basketball team, D’Tigress, suffered a narrow 70-67 defeat to hosts China in the opening game of their three-match exhibition series in Haikou on Friday as preparations for the 2026 FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup gathered momentum.
The reigning African champions produced an impressive display against the world No. 4 side, trailing by just one point (39-38) at halftime before pushing China all the way in a fiercely contested encounter.
Despite their relentless defensive intensity and resilience, D’Tigress fell just three points short at the final buzzer, offering another encouraging performance against one of the world’s elite basketball nations.
The exhibition series forms a key part of Nigeria’s build-up to the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup in Berlin, where head coach Rena Wakama’s side will be aiming to improve on their historic performances on the global stage.
Nigeria heads into this year’s tournament with growing confidence after establishing itself as Africa’s dominant force in women’s basketball. D’Tigress qualified automatically as champions of the 2025 FIBA Women’s AfroBasket, securing a record-extending seventh continental title and fifth consecutive African crown.
The 2026 edition will mark Nigeria’s third appearance at the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup. Their best outing came in 2018 in Tenerife, Spain, where they reached the quarter-finals to finish eighth, the best-ever World Cup finish by an African women’s team. They missed the 2022 tournament but return this year as one of the competition’s top-ranked teams after their recent continental and Olympic successes.
The African champions will have another opportunity to test themselves against China when both teams meet again in the second exhibition game on August 9, before concluding the three-game series on August 12. The warm-up fixtures are designed to sharpen the team’s tactics, improve chemistry and prepare them for the intensity of World Cup competition.
