World Cup Qualifiers: D’Tigress Eye Must-Win Against Philippines After South Korea Loss

Nigeria’s senior women’s basketball team, D’Tigress, fell to a 77-60 loss against South Korea in their second outing at the FIBA Women’s World Cup Qualifying Tournament held in Lyon, France.

The Thursday’s defeat marked a historic first for the African champions, as it was their initial loss to the Korean side in competitive history.

D’Tigress had kept things competitive early, trailing only narrowly at 36-32 by halftime after close battles in the opening two quarters.

However, they lost steam in the later stages, allowing the momentum to shift decisively away in the third and fourth periods.

Head coach Rena Wakama acknowledged the Koreans’ strong showing while highlighting areas for improvement.

“Korea is a great team. We struggled today shooting the balls and we turned over the ball twenty two times which is not typical of our game,” she said.

Wakama emphasized resilience and a measured response to the setback.

“Mentality we are fine, and we are not going to over react to the loss. There are lessons in losses so we are going to take the lessons from this game and try to get better and be ready for our next game,” the coach added.

She gave credit to the opponents’ tactical execution that disrupted Nigeria’s flow.

“The Koreans were very physical, denying our passing lanes and double up on our players. They did a great job and credit to them,” Wakama added.

Persecondnews reports that the leading scorer for Nigeria was Victoria Macaulay, who delivered 22 points and grabbed 6 rebounds, building on her standout MVP performance in the team’s opening win over Colombia.

South Korea now aims to claim one of the two available qualification spots from this round-robin event to secure a berth at the 2026 FIBA Women’s World Cup in Berlin, Germany, scheduled for September.

Nigeria and Germany have already clinched their places at the global tournament after prior successes, so they are using these matches primarily as preparation and tune-up opportunities.

The current qualification phase for the FIBA Women’s World Cup is distributed across four host countries – France, Turkey, Puerto Rico, and China, where various nations compete for remaining tickets to the finals.

D’Tigress will next face the Philippines on Saturday, followed by clashes against powerhouse European teams France and Germany in their remaining group fixtures.