Sports

Cameroon eliminated from U17 Basketball World Cup.

by Dewah Fabrice Teh
02 Jul 2026 23:07
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Cameroon has been knocked out of the 2026 Under-17 Basketball World after losing all its four matches.
The elimination of the Under17 Basketball Lions was confirmed after the team lost to the United States of America yesterday, in the round of 16 stage of the ongoing tournament in Turkiye.

The US team which has won all seven previous editions of the global age-group championship since it was launched in 2010, handed the U17 Lions a humiliating 141-88points beating.

The North Americans overpowered the team 40-21, 29-25, 37-19 and 35-20 points across the first, second, third and fourth quarters of the match.

This was despite the brilliant individual performances that several Cameroonian players registered in the match especially rising global sensation, Nolan Ngameni who powered in a game-high 24points.

Before yesterday’s match in the knock out stages, the U17 Lions had lost all the three matches that they had disputed in the group stage.

The team only progressed to the knockout phase due to the format of the competition which allows all 16 participating teams to advance to the second round at the end of the group phase.

The U17 Lions suffered a 90-72points loss to China last Saturday in their first match in Group A where they were pooled for the opening round of the tournament.

The outfit followed up the match with a humiliating 94-43points defeat to Lithuania on Sunday in its second outing before completing the series with a disturbing 104-64points loss to Canada in the last group fixture last Tuesday.

Cameroon was making its first ever appearance in the final phase of the U17 Basketball World Cup competition.

The selection qualified for the tournament after emerging as the vice champion of the 2025 Under-16 African Basketball Championships last year behind competition host and winners Cote d’Ivoire.

Despite the team’s status as a debutant, the wide margin of defeats that the U17 Lions registered in the world cup tournament in Turkiye has created an air of disappointment due to the heavy preparation that the side went through before the tournament.

The Cameroon Basketball Federation, FECABASKET notably appointed former Cameroon international, Parfait Bitee as the new head coach of the outfit ahead of the tournament.

Bitee captained the Basketball Lions team that historically finished as vice champions of the 2007 African basketball championships, the Afrobasket. He is currently working as a basketball trainer in the United States.

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3835 of Thursday July 02, 2026