Basketball in Africa

First Deepwater retained the Zenith female basketball league by beating arch rival First Bank female basket ball team in an entertaining final Saturday night.

The Babalola girls overpowered the Elephants girls by three quarters to one to bagged the first prize money of N1million.
Led by diminutive Nkechi Akashili, the Deepwater ladies stood toes to toes with the ever domineering First bank ladies mostly comprising national team players.
At the end the Deepwater girls won 17-16, 13-11, 16-19 and 19-11 thus changing the face of women basketball in Nigeria.
First Bank for their efforts were rewarded with a sum of N750,000 while the third placed team Sunshine Queens of Akure who placed third went home with N500,000.
National team player, Nkechi Akashili who posted a brilliant run in the final won the Most Valuable Player award and the Highest scorer award..
Speaking after the event, an elated President of Nigeria Basketball Federation, Alhaji Tijani Umar praised the standard displayed by all the participating teams and reassured that with the performance sky will be the limit for Nigeria in the sport.
   " I am happy that the momentum in female basketball in Nigeria is changing with the emergence of new champions," he said.
He explained that with the emergence of new champions and the rivalry, the national technical crew will have opportunity to pick more players.
He urged corporate organizations to rally round the sport and sponsor more local competitions for the girls to be in top shape for international competitions.