Ghana’s male and female teams participating in the FIBA U-16 African suffered defeats in their opening games on Friday, June, 23 2024.

Ghana’s female team tasted a 73-24 defeat to Nigeria before the Ivory Coast mounted a successful comeback to beat Ghana's male side 68-85 in overtime.

Ghana’s male team fought spiritedly but were overpowered by Ivory Coast who were determined not to lose their second game of the competition.

For the female side, it was a walk in the park for Nigeria who unlike Ghana are one of Africa basketball’s powerhouses.

It was a strong start from Nigeria who established their dominance with an 18-2 lead in the first quarter.

The Ghanaian side labored to mount a comeback of theirs but that was not to be as the Nigerians switched gears to send the scoreline to 41-9.

By the third quarter, Ghana’s players had already given up hope as they managed to add only two points to their second-quarter scoreline whereas Nigeria topped theirs with eleven points.

The result means that Nigeria have taken a giant step towards qualification whereas Ghana faces an uphill task of qualifying for both the male and female competitions.