YAOUNDE (Cameroon) - Eleven of the twelve national teams from all corners of Africa have gathered in Yaounde in an attempt to capture the FIBA Women's AfroBasket trophy that Nigeria have been holding for the past four years.

How much longer can Nigeria retain the African crown?

The 12-nation tournament tips off on Saturday, September 18 with the winner to be determined eight days later on Sunday September 26 at Palais Polyvalent des sports de Yaounde.

It's expected to be a thrilling competition, considering how teams revamped and prepared their rosters for the biennial competition.  

FIBA.basketball brings you everything that you need to know about this year's FIBA Women's AfroBasket.

SECOND CHANCE FOR HOST CAMEROON

The Women's AfroBasket returns to Yaounde for the first time since 2015. Six years ago, a star-studded Cameroon team led by Ramses Lonlack, Priscilla Mbiamdja and Amina Njokou  defeated Mozambique, Mali, Uganda, Gabon , South Africa, Egypt, Nigeria before meeting Senegal in the Final in a full capacity Palais Polyvalent des sports de Yaounde.

In what was expected to be the biggest day for Cameroon women's basketball, Senegal spoiled the hosts' intentions, winning 81-66. 

 
The Women's AfroBasket 2021 emerges not only as a second chance for Cameroon to win their first-ever African title, but the Cameroonians will also try to become the first team to win the tournament at home since Nigeria claimed the Women's AfroBasket 2005 in Abuja.  

NIGERIA 

Nigeria is clearly the team to beat in this tournament. The last time the No.1 team in Africa lost a game on the continent of Africa was during a nail-biting Women's AfroBasket SemI-Final against Cameroon on October 2, 2015.

Since then, D'Tigress have accrued to a 17-0 winning streak in Africa.

The two-time defending African champions Nigeria will try to become the first team to win a three-peat since  since Senegal conquered Africa from 1974 to 1984.

The Yaounde showdown will be Nigeria's since their Tokyo 2020 showing two months ago.

WHAT'S AT STAKE?

The ultimate goal for all twelve national teams is to take the trophy home, but there is more than that.

The two teams that reach the Final of the Women's AfroBasket 2021 will secure the two tickets available for African teams for the four FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup 2022 Qualifying Tournaments in February 2022.

The tournaments will feature four national teams each, with the top three from each group qualifying for the FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup 2022 to complete the 12-team field for the main event in Australia.

REPEAT OF WOMEN'S AFROBASKET 2019?

With the exception of Guinea, the other eleven teams - Angola, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Cote d'Ivoire, Egypt, Kenya, Mali, Mozambique, Nigeria, Senegal and Tunisia - played at FIBA Women's AfroBasket 2019 in Dakar, Senegal.

COMPETITION SYSTEM

All 12 national teams have beed divided into four groups of three each. The winners of each group advance automatically to the Quarter-Finals, while the remaining eight teams will play a Qualifying Round to the complete the Quarter-Finals field.

The winners of the Quarter-Final advance to Semi-Finals, while the losers will play the classification games for the 5th to 8th Places.

The classification game for Third-Place and the Final will be played on the last day of competition (September 26).

HOW TO FOLLOW THE GAMES

Spectators will be admitted inside the Palais Polyvalent des sports providing they comply with the COVID-19 protocols and show their tickets.

FIBA will be covering the tournament across their Social Media platforms. 

All games will streamed on the subscription-only livebasketball.tv although some games might be shown on the national television of participating countries.

FIBA