Diarrah Sissoko Earns Spot on Mali National Team

FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup 2026 Pre-Qualifying Tournaments began August 19.

Source: NMSU Athletics
Story and Photo by Matthew Knope

NM State’s own Diarrah Sissoko is set to represent her native country in international basketball competition. In 2026, the eyes of the women’s basketball world will be on Berlin for the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup. In a new expanded tournament, 16 teams will vie for qualifying on FIBA’s biggest stage. Eight teams will be sent to Kigali, with eight others being sent to Mexico City, including Sissoko’s native country of Mali.

Sissoko joined NM State this offseason, and will be entering her fifth season of collegiate basketball once November rolls around. The 5-foot-10 Mali native spent the 2023-24 campaign with Sam Houston, where she faced off with NM State twice, including a 15-point, six-rebound performance on Feb. 22.

Mali will begin Group A action on Monday with a contest against the Czech Republic at 2:30 PM MT. Later, Sissoko and company will take on Venezuela on Tuesday, August 20th at 8:30 PM MT and South Korea on Thursday, August 22nd at Noon MT.

All the action for the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup Pre-Qualifying Tournaments will be streamed live at youtube.com/fiba. The full schedule can be found at fiba.basketball.

For complete coverage of NM State Women’s Basketball, follow us on Twitter (@NMStateWBB), Instagram (@NMStateWBB) and like us on Facebook (NM State Women’s Basketball). You can also follow along with Aggie Women’s Basketball via NMStateSports.com.

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Levi Gwaltney

Levi Gwaltney is the Editor In Chief of Las Cruces Digest. The Editor makes editorial and posting decisions regarding content published on this site. In most cases, the Editor makes little if any contribution to content published, and takes no credit for the content of republished posts. If available, the source or author of posts is provided at the top of the article.