Draw sets path for eight nations as Centrobasket Women's Championship heads to Managua

The draw for the 2026 FIBA Centrobasket Women's Championship serving as the qualifier for the FIBA Women's AmeriCup 2027 was held on Monday in Miami, placing eight national teams into two groups for the tournament scheduled July 12-18 at the Alexis Arguello Sports Complex in Managua, Nicaragua. The groups are as follows:

Group A: Nicaragua (host), Mexico, Bahamas, Dominican Republic
Group B: Puerto Rico, El Salvador, US Virgin Islands, Guyana

Puerto Rico, four-time defending champions, headline Group B alongside El Salvador who qualified through the 2025 COCABA Women's Championship and two Caribbean qualifiers in the USVI and Guyana. Group A features hosts Nicaragua alongside Mexico, plus the Bahamas and the Dominican Republic. The tournament introduces a new competition format for this edition. Each team plays every opponent in their group once in round-robin play. The first-placed teams from each group advance directly to the semifinals, while second-placed teams cross over to face third-placed teams from the opposite group (2B vs 3A and 2A vs 3B). Winners of those crossover games join the group leaders in the semifinals, while losers drop to classification games alongside the fourth-placed teams. The top three finishers at the tournament will qualify for the FIBA Women's AmeriCup 2027, joining host nation El Salvador who have already earned automatic qualification for the continental championship.