African champions, D’Tigress made a huge move in the latest FIBA rankings released by the World Basketball governing body, FIBA on Friday.
D’Tigress had the biggest move up the rankings of any team, climbing a massive 15 places, from 34th to 19th.
This was the result of an inspiring run at the FIBA Women’s World Cup in Tenerife, where they reached the Quarter-Finals and, along the way, recorded historic milestones, including the country’s first-ever win in the Group Phase of the competition and over European opposition, in the shape of Turkey.
There were also huge leaps for Belgium who both moved inside the world’s top 20.
The Belgians registered the second biggest jump of any team in 2018, moving up 12 places, from 28th to 16th. This came on the strength of an impressive run on their Women’s World Cup debut that saw them finish fourth, behind USA, Australia and Spain.
The USA, on the back of being crowned world champions for the third time in a row (2010, 2014 and 2018) remain as number one ahead of Spain their nearest rivals after finishing third.
Australia move up one spot to third in the world following their performance in the competition where they returned to the Final for the first time since winning the world title in 2006. They overtake France, who lost in the Quarter-Finals stage of the competition.
Senegal who lost their quarter final playoff to Spain retained their 17th spot on the global ranking and first in Africa, Nigeria is second in Africa while Angola dropped 2 places to 20 in third.
Mozambique also moved 2 steps backwards occupying 27th spot as Mali dropped 16 places to 40th.
