Stanford freshman Nora Ezike is set to represent Nigeria at the upcoming FIBA U19 World Cup, scheduled to take place in Brno, Czechia. The tournament runs from July 12 to July 20.
Nigeria has been placed in Group B and will start their campaign against China on Saturday at 5 a.m. PT. Following this, they will face Canada on Sunday and Portugal on Tuesday. All participating teams will advance to the Round of 16 next Wednesday. In this round, Group B teams will compete against Group A teams, which include the USA, Israel, Hungary, and Korea. Winners from these matches will proceed to the quarterfinals.
Ezike joins Stanford’s highly-rated freshman class, which espnW Hoopgurlz ranks as No. 3 nationally. She is a four-star forward and was ranked No. 85 in her class. During her senior year at Lyons Township, she averaged 21 points and seven rebounds per game, contributing significantly to the team’s 31-3 overall record. Ezike achieved eight double-doubles and set a single-season school record with 713 points, earning a spot on the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association Class 4A first team.
She follows in the footsteps of former Stanford players Ros Gold-Onwude and Enjoli Izidor who also represented Nigeria in international tournaments. Gold-Onwude played in the FIBA Africa Championship in 2011 while Izidor participated in both the FIBA Africa Championship in 2007 and the FIBA World Championship in 2006.
In addition, sophomore Shay Ijiwoye represented Nigeria as part of the World Select Team at the Nike Hoop Summit last year.
The games held in Czechia can be viewed on FIBA’s YouTube page at youtube.com/FIBA.
