Guinea made history today by beating Nigeria’s D’Tigers for the first time in their history in Tunisia in the 2027 FIBA World Cup qualifiers.
Souleyman Boum Jr. and Shannon Evans made some crucial plays to help Guinea overcome the D’Tigers with a final score of 69–55.
The two playmakers combined for 40 points in the win, improving their record to 2-0 with one game remaining in the opening round of the 2027 World Cup African qualifiers.
Prior to today’s game, D’Tigers had a 3-0 head-to-head advantage over Guinea, dating back to the 1985 African Championship in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.
Since returning to the AfroBasket in 2017 after a 32-year absence, Guinea had faced Nigeria twice during the 2023 World Cup African Qualifiers and lost both encounters.
However, today, Guinea outperformed Nigeria, leading by as many as 19 points, leaving D’Tigers head coach, Abdulrahman Mohamed, searching for answers.
Describing Guinea as one of the hottest teams in African basketball is no exaggeration.
Nigeria became the second top-10 African team to fall to Guinea, who defeated the No. 1 team on the continent, South Sudan, during the 2025 AfroBasket in Angola.
Tunisia, the team that beat Guinea by one point at the very end of their 2025 AfroBasket Qualifiers game, are their next opponents.
Guinea’s head coach, Nedeljko Ascerić, is feeling so confident that he hopes to see a “full house”.
“I have a great respect for Guinea. I was even thinking that’s the first time they would beat us in official games,” Coach Mohamed said.
“It feels amazing. Winning these two games, beating Nigeria and playing well,” Boum Jr. said.
Ascerić said: “The X-factor for our win was our defense; we’ve only allowed them a 27% in field-goals.”
The defeat is the second for D’Tigers in two games, after the 2015 AfroBasket champions lost 88-78 to Tunisia in their opening clash on Thursday.