The second day of the FIBA Africa Championship tournament will feature a few of the tournament favorites seeing their first action of the event when play begins on Wednesday morning. The second day of games will also feature a first-time participant when Burkina Faso takes the court.
2013 FIBA Africa schedule: Nigeria’s loaded squad to take center stage Wednesday
Nigeria, the favorite’s at this year’s FIBA Africa Championship tournament, will play Mali in their first game of the 2014 World Cup qualifier.
Christian Petersen
Tuesday’s action featured all eight teams from Groups A and C playing in the first of three round-robin games. On Wednesday, Groups B and D will see the court as they begin to figure out seeding for the eventual 16-team knockout round when it begins next Monday.
The biggest game of the day will take place between Nigeria and Mali, which features two teams ranked in the world’s top 50.
Nigeria's roster features a fair amount of the same players that participated for the country in the 2012 London Olympics and has even added a couple of extra recognizable names. Al-Farouq Aminu, Alade Aminu, Ike Diogu, Gani Lawal, Champ Oguchi and Ben Uzoh are among Nigeria's more high-profile players that have played stateside during either their professional or collegiate careers.
Mali hasn’t made much noise on the world stage in recent years and they don’t have the names that Nigeria does, but they made the tournament as a wild card participant and are currently ranked 49th in the world.
Wednesday’s other games will feature Rwanda vs. Burkina Faso, Luc Richard Mbah a Moute’s Cameroon taking on Congo and Tunisia -- the 2011 Afrobasket winner -- taking on Morocco.
Wednesday’s Schedule*
8:30 a.m. - Rwanda vs. Burkina Faso
11 a.m. - Cameroon vs. Republic of Congo
1:30 p.m. - Nigeria vs. Mali
4 p.m. - Tunisia vs. Morocco
* - all times Eastern
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