{"id":23012,"date":"2025-08-04T05:09:13","date_gmt":"2025-08-04T05:09:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kick442.com\/?p=23012"},"modified":"2025-08-04T05:09:13","modified_gmt":"2025-08-04T05:09:13","slug":"unstoppable-nigeria-crush-mali-to-clinch-fifth-straight-afrobasket-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kick442.com\/fr\/unstoppable-nigeria-crush-mali-to-clinch-fifth-straight-afrobasket-title\/","title":{"rendered":"Unstoppable Nigeria Crush Mali to Clinch Fifth Straight AfroBasket Title"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nigeria\u2019s women\u2019s basketball team cemented their dynasty with a dominant 78\u201364 victory over Mali in the 2025 FIBA Women’s AfroBasket final in Abidjan, claiming an unprecedented fifth consecutive continental crown.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The win doesn’t just add more silverware to Nigeria\u2019s packed trophy cabinet, it also earns them a spot in next year\u2019s FIBA Women\u2019s Basketball World Cup Qualifying Tournaments, as they set their sights on Berlin 2026.<\/p>\n

The showdown was a fiery rematch of the 2021 final, and once again, Nigeria reigned supreme.<\/p>\n

After a shaky start and trailing early, the D\u2019Tigress found their rhythm in the second quarter, thanks to a surge led by floor general Ezinne Kalu, tying the game 41\u201341 at halftime.<\/p>\n

Then, Amy Okonkwo took over!<\/p>\n

Right after the break, Okonkwo drained a clutch three-pointer to put Nigeria up 44\u201341\u2014a lead they never relinquished. Mali tried to claw their way back in the final frame, narrowing the gap to just four points, but Nigeria turned up the pressure and closed the game with authority.<\/p>\n

Okonkwo, who finished with 19 points on 7-of-11 shooting (including 4-of-7 from downtown), was named Tournament MVP, anchoring both ends of the floor with poise and power. Ezinne Kalu, an inspiration for Nigeria, led the scoring chart with 20 points and was a constant threat every time she touched the ball.<\/p>\n

Mali\u2019s Sika Kon\u00e9 delivered a valiant performance with 16 points and 13 rebounds, but the 2007 champions simply couldn\u2019t match Nigeria\u2019s depth and experience.<\/p>\n

It marks Mali\u2019s second straight AfroBasket final loss to Nigeria, following their defeat in Yaound\u00e9 in 2021.<\/p>\n

No other nation has ever achieved five consecutive AfroBasket titles, a streak that began in 2015 and shows no signs of slowing down.<\/p>\n

The All-Star Five featured Okonkwo alongside Senegal\u2019s Cierra Dillard, South Sudan\u2019s Delicia Washington, Uganda\u2019s Jane Asinde, and Mali\u2019s Sika Kon\u00e9.<\/p>\n

Next stop for the queens of African basketball: the World Cup qualifiers in March.<\/p>\n

\n

Copyright\u00a92025 kick442.com-Cameroon<\/strong><\/p>\n

All rights reserved. This material and any other digital content on this platform may not be reproduced, published, broadcast, written, or distributed in full or in part, without written permission from our management.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This site is not responsible for the content displayed by external sites<\/strong><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nigeria\u2019s women\u2019s basketball team cemented their dynasty with a dominant 78\u201364 victory over Mali…<\/p>","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":23013,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball"],"yoast_head":"\nUnstoppable Nigeria Crush Mali to Clinch Fifth Straight AfroBasket Title - KICK442 Sport News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/kick442.com\/fr\/unstoppable-nigeria-crush-mali-to-clinch-fifth-straight-afrobasket-title\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"fr_FR\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Unstoppable Nigeria Crush Mali to Clinch Fifth Straight AfroBasket Title - KICK442 Sport News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Nigeria\u2019s women\u2019s basketball team cemented their dynasty with a dominant 78\u201364 victory over Mali…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/kick442.com\/fr\/unstoppable-nigeria-crush-mali-to-clinch-fifth-straight-afrobasket-title\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"KICK442 Sport News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-08-04T05:09:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/kick442.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/IMG-20250804-WA00211.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"kick442.com Africa\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"\u00c9crit par\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"kick442.com Africa\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Dur\u00e9e de lecture estim\u00e9e\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/kick442.com\/unstoppable-nigeria-crush-mali-to-clinch-fifth-straight-afrobasket-title\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/kick442.com\/unstoppable-nigeria-crush-mali-to-clinch-fifth-straight-afrobasket-title\/\",\"name\":\"Unstoppable Nigeria Crush Mali to Clinch Fifth Straight AfroBasket Title - KICK442 Sport News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/kick442.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/kick442.com\/unstoppable-nigeria-crush-mali-to-clinch-fifth-straight-afrobasket-title\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/kick442.com\/unstoppable-nigeria-crush-mali-to-clinch-fifth-straight-afrobasket-title\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/kick442.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/IMG-20250804-WA00211.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-08-04T05:09:13+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/kick442.com\/#\/schema\/person\/e09ab35c619e489478703b87ca41a908\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/kick442.com\/unstoppable-nigeria-crush-mali-to-clinch-fifth-straight-afrobasket-title\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"fr-FR\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/kick442.com\/unstoppable-nigeria-crush-mali-to-clinch-fifth-straight-afrobasket-title\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"fr-FR\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/kick442.com\/unstoppable-nigeria-crush-mali-to-clinch-fifth-straight-afrobasket-title\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/kick442.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/IMG-20250804-WA00211.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/kick442.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/IMG-20250804-WA00211.jpg\",\"width\":720,\"height\":900},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/kick442.com\/unstoppable-nigeria-crush-mali-to-clinch-fifth-straight-afrobasket-title\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/kick442.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Unstoppable Nigeria Crush Mali to Clinch Fifth Straight AfroBasket Title\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/kick442.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/kick442.com\/\",\"name\":\"KICK442 Sport News\",\"description\":\"Best Sport News\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/kick442.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"fr-FR\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/kick442.com\/#\/schema\/person\/e09ab35c619e489478703b87ca41a908\",\"name\":\"kick442.com Africa\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"fr-FR\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/kick442.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2048beb77cc1558702a16c473ac541f1fd65db65d97980b32da573c8da265481?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2048beb77cc1558702a16c473ac541f1fd65db65d97980b32da573c8da265481?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"kick442.com Africa\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/kick442.com\/fr\/author\/profseuno\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Unstoppable Nigeria Crush Mali to Clinch Fifth Straight AfroBasket Title - KICK442 Sport News","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/kick442.com\/fr\/unstoppable-nigeria-crush-mali-to-clinch-fifth-straight-afrobasket-title\/","og_locale":"fr_FR","og_type":"article","og_title":"Unstoppable Nigeria Crush Mali to Clinch Fifth Straight AfroBasket Title - KICK442 Sport News","og_description":"Nigeria\u2019s women\u2019s basketball team cemented their dynasty with a dominant 78\u201364 victory over Mali…","og_url":"https:\/\/kick442.com\/fr\/unstoppable-nigeria-crush-mali-to-clinch-fifth-straight-afrobasket-title\/","og_site_name":"KICK442 Sport News","article_published_time":"2025-08-04T05:09:13+00:00","og_image":[{"width":720,"height":900,"url":"https:\/\/kick442.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/IMG-20250804-WA00211.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"kick442.com Africa","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"\u00c9crit par":"kick442.com Africa","Dur\u00e9e de lecture estim\u00e9e":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/kick442.com\/unstoppable-nigeria-crush-mali-to-clinch-fifth-straight-afrobasket-title\/","url":"https:\/\/kick442.com\/unstoppable-nigeria-crush-mali-to-clinch-fifth-straight-afrobasket-title\/","name":"Unstoppable Nigeria Crush Mali to Clinch Fifth Straight AfroBasket Title - KICK442 Sport News","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/kick442.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/kick442.com\/unstoppable-nigeria-crush-mali-to-clinch-fifth-straight-afrobasket-title\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/kick442.com\/unstoppable-nigeria-crush-mali-to-clinch-fifth-straight-afrobasket-title\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/kick442.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/IMG-20250804-WA00211.jpg","datePublished":"2025-08-04T05:09:13+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/kick442.com\/#\/schema\/person\/e09ab35c619e489478703b87ca41a908"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/kick442.com\/unstoppable-nigeria-crush-mali-to-clinch-fifth-straight-afrobasket-title\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"fr-FR","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/kick442.com\/unstoppable-nigeria-crush-mali-to-clinch-fifth-straight-afrobasket-title\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"fr-FR","@id":"https:\/\/kick442.com\/unstoppable-nigeria-crush-mali-to-clinch-fifth-straight-afrobasket-title\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/kick442.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/IMG-20250804-WA00211.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/kick442.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/IMG-20250804-WA00211.jpg","width":720,"height":900},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/kick442.com\/unstoppable-nigeria-crush-mali-to-clinch-fifth-straight-afrobasket-title\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/kick442.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Unstoppable Nigeria Crush Mali to Clinch Fifth Straight AfroBasket Title"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/kick442.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/kick442.com\/","name":"KICK442 Sport News","description":"Best Sport News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/kick442.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"fr-FR"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/kick442.com\/#\/schema\/person\/e09ab35c619e489478703b87ca41a908","name":"kick442.com Africa","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"fr-FR","@id":"https:\/\/kick442.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2048beb77cc1558702a16c473ac541f1fd65db65d97980b32da573c8da265481?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2048beb77cc1558702a16c473ac541f1fd65db65d97980b32da573c8da265481?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"kick442.com Africa"},"url":"https:\/\/kick442.com\/fr\/author\/profseuno\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kick442.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kick442.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kick442.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kick442.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kick442.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23012"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kick442.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23012\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23014,"href":"https:\/\/kick442.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23012\/revisions\/23014"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kick442.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kick442.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kick442.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kick442.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}