ABIDJAN (Côte d’Ivoire) - A thorough look into Group B of the 2025 AfroBasket tells a story of Tunisia's dominance over Nigeria, Cameroon and Madagascar over the past decade.
However, teams remain cautious about what comes next when the quadrennial AfroBasket gets underway in Angola in August (12-24).
FIBA.basketball digs deep in the archives of recent African basketball tournaments and brings you a breakdown of the games these teams have played against each other.
Where do Group B teams rank?
Tunisia emerges as the highest-ranked team among Group B team.
The Eagles of Carthage, who won Group E of the AfroBasket qualifiers with a 5-1 record, currently ranks fourth in Africa and 36th in the world according to the FIBA Ranking Sponsored by NIKE.
Former African Nigeria rank sixth in Africa (42nd in the world); Cameroon are among the top-10 teams in Africa at ninth (64th in the world) while Madagascar ranks 19th in Africa and 105th in the world.
Head-to-head results between Group A teams over the past decade:
There is an ongoing saga between Tunisia, Cameroon, Nigeria, and Madagascar — four teams who’ve shared the court, swapped victories, and shaped each other’s destinies at different tournaments.
Tournament | Year | Game | Score | City | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
AfroBasket | 2015 | Tunisia vs Nigeria | 70-59 (Group Phase) | Rades, Tunisia | 23-08-2025 |
AfroBasket | 2017 | Tunisia vs Nigeria | 77-65 (Final) | Rades, Tunisia | 16-09-2017 |
AfroBasket | 2017 | Tunisia vs Cameroon | 68-51 (Group Phase) | Rades, Tunisia | 08-09-2017 |
AfroBasket | 2017 | Nigeria vs Cameroon | 106-91 (Quarterfinals) | Rades, Tunisia | 14-09-2017 |
World Cup African Qualifiers | 2019 | Cameroon vs Tunisia | 66-67 (First Round - Group A) | Yaounde, Cameroon | 26-11-2017 |
World Cup African Qualifiers | 2019 | Cameroon vs Tunisia | 53-56 (Second Round - Group A) | Rades, Tunisia | 01-07-2018 |
AfroBasket Qualifiers | 2021 | Madagascar vs Tunisia | 52-89 (First Round - Group A) | Kigali, Rwanda | 27-11-2020 |
AfroBasket Qualifiers | 2021 | Madagascar vs Tunisia | 51-78 (Second Round - Group A) | Monastir, Tunisia | 18-02-2021 |
World Cup African Qualifiers | 2023 | Cameroon vs Tunisia | 51-55 (First Round - Group B) | Dakar, Tunisia | 25-02-2022 |
World Cup African Qualifiers | 2023 | Cameroon vs Tunisia | 54-65 (Second Round - Group B) | Kigali, Rwanda | 01-07-2022 |
Olympic Pre-Qualifying Tournament - Africa | 2023 | Cameroon vs Tunisia | 83-70 (Group Phase) | Lagos, Nigeria | 18-08-2023 |
KEY PLAYERS
Tunisia
The reigning champions, Tunisia, have plenty of talent heading into the 2025 FIBA AfroBasket.
With a 5-1 record in the qualifiers, some players have secured their spot on the plane to Angola.
Point guard Omar Abada is a jack of all trades who did a bit of everything to help the AfroBasket champions. Abada finished the qualifiers with an efficiency rating of 18, boosted by an average of 15 points, 3.9 rebounds, and 6.3 assists per game.
Standing alongside Abada is the 2021 AfroBasket MVP, Makram Ben Romdhane, who led Tunisia in rebounds. At 6'8", Ben Romdhane averaged 6.6 rebounds per game, 4 of which were on the defensive end.
Cameroon
The Central African nation needed heroes, and Jeremiah Hill and Williams Narace rose to the occasion.
During the 2025 AfroBasket qualifiers Hill led Cameroon in average efficiency (17.2) and assists (7.2) per game, while Narace topped the scoreboard for the Indomitable Lions with an average of 14 points and 6.8 rebounds per game.
Nigeria
After going down 0-3 in the February 2024 Qualifying window, no-one wanted to bet a kopeck on Nigeria. But they overcame adversity and emerged with a 3-0 streak in the February 2025 window, and qualified to the 2025 AfroBasket.
Two orchestrated the D’Tigers’ success in Libya: Caleb Agada who scored 14 points against the hosts en route to a 75-70 victory, before adding 20 points to their win against Uganda, and 23 points against Cape Verde.
Madagascar
A few players stood out for Madagascar during the final qualifying window in February 2025.
Madagascar center Sitraka Raharimanantoanina, Mathias M’Madi who scooped the 2022 U18 AfroBasket MVP award, and Elly Randriamampionona were the standouts for the Islanders.
When the time came to face Egypt, M’Madi scored 18 points and Raharimanantoanina contributed 15 points and 13 rebounds while blocking Egypt six times.
What the players say
Radhouane Slimane (Tunisia) : "No team can be overlooked nowadays. With every country trying to become more competitive, we can't afford to underestimate anyone. Not even Madagascar can be overlooked. As for Tunisia, I think we’re going to have a tough time. They’re in the midst of a transition, and it’s going to be very difficult."
"Nigeria promises to be a strong team if their stars play. The same goes for Cameroon, which has some valuable players. Madagascar is not the team we know. They're becoming more physical.
"Only the court will tell. You can have the best roster, but what you do on the court is what counts."
Sitraka Raharimanantoanina (Madagascar): “Madagascar is not the favorite. But it all comes down to what happens on the court. We’re the underdogs, but we’ve already shown that we can pull off an upset. We’re going to Angola to try to advance past the group phase."
"To be honest, we know Tunisia; we played them in 2021. We need to bring back our best players so we can compete with Tunisia and the other top teams. I think this is the way to improve."
Jeremiah Hill (Cameroon): “For the most part, I believe this is the best-case scenario for us. We avoided all the bigger teams at the beginning of the AfroBasket. This gives us an opportunity to find our rhythm and advance past our group. As for the contenders, South Sudan, Angola, Senegal, and Côte d'Ivoire are the top teams. It's really between the five of us, provided we all do what we're supposed to do in our respective groups."
FIBA