Basketball in Africa

Week-10 fixtures which signal the end of regular season pairing of the Atlantic conference of the Nigeria flagship competition the Vmobile premier league was a delight to watch as all four playoff qualifiers gave a good account of themselves.

The Ebun Comets basketball club and Dodan Warriors basketball club pairing was the better of the two games played at the Sports Hall of the Lagos National Stadium last weekend.

The encounter, the second this season between both sides saw the Warriors playing one of their best game of the season when it led from the blast of the referees’ whistle until 4 minutes 51 second left in the game.

With as much as 16 points lead every one had thought that the Owoicho Alexander tutored side was going to carry the day before letting Comets through inspirational and good court leadership of Baba Jibril who later emerged as the most valuable player of the night to size the initiative to end the match 76 points apiece at regulation time.

The over time saw Comets coming out more determined not minding the fact that Warriors shot into an early lead in the first two minutes of the five minutes as the Baba Jibril captained side once again proved to be the better of the two side having won the first encounter 80-70 points to end the days’ game at 87-84 points of 13-13, 09-18, 20-16, 34-29 and 11-08.

...Islanders stetched Union Bank

Playing as if to prove a point that they are better than what people have painted them this season Toyin Sonoiki tutored Islanders held Union Bank to its game taking a 39-37 points half-time lead before succumbing to the Stallion boys as the Union Bank team is also known in the third and fourth quarters dropping one point in each quarters.

The first quarter had ended in favour of the Stallion boy (20-18) with most of its players taking the game calmly as it allows the former league champion to rally back in the second quarter for a score line of 21-17 points before coming out a bit stronger in the third (17-14) and fourth quarter (13-12) for a cumulative scores of 69-67 points.

All four teams have, however, booked the ticket for the July 14 to 16 Atlantic conference playoff billed for Lagos.