Basketball in Africa

Defending champions, First Deepwater, and former champions, First Bank, are group leaders at the halfway mark of the on-going 9th Zenith Bank National Women's Basketball League in Abuja.
The 16-team league competition, which is in its first phase, is holding at the Indoor Sports Hall of the Abuja National Stadium.
The competition, which kicked off on Saturday with an opening ceremony and two matches, entered its fourth day on Wednesday, with teams breaking off for rest on Thursday.
Play is expected to resume on Friday with day five matches. First Deepwater and First Bank have won all their four matches and lead groups A and B respectively.
First Deepwater beat Nigeria Customs 62-43 in their first match and walloped Taraba Hurricanes 94-10 in their second match.
The Lagos-based side went ahead to whip GT-2000 of Kaduna 62-14 and then humiliated Coal City Queens of Enugu 107-28 in their fourth match on Wednesday.
They are followed by Sunshine Queens of Akure, who also have eight points from four matches, while the FCT Angels of Abuja are third with three wins.
Nigeria Customs are fourth in the group with two wins, while new entrants GT-2000 of Kaduna occupy the fifth position ahead of AHIP Queens of Kano, occupying the sixth place.
The rest newcomers in the group, Coal City Queens of Enugu and Taraba Hurricanes, occupy the seventh and eighth positions after losing all their four matches.
In Group B, last year's runners-up and former champions, First Bank of Lagos also topped the group with eight points, followed by Dolphins of Lagos, which recorded three wins from four matches.
Benue Queens and Plateau Rocks are in the third and fourth positions respectively, after bagging seven points each from three wins.
IGP Queens are in the fifth position with two wins from four matches for six points, while the sixth place is occupied by Delta Force of Asaba, which recorded a win and three losses.
Newcomers, Oluyole Babes of Ibadan, are in seventh place ahead of Nigeria Immigration, who are in 8th position.
The league's second phase will hold from May 2 to May 12 in Asaba.
The third phase, which is the Final Eight Play-offs and will determine the league champions, will hold in Lagos from June 7 to16.
NAN