Basketball in Africa

The defending champions of the Zenith Bank Women Basketball League, First Deepwater women basketball club of Lagos, on Friday in Ilorin moved closer to retaining their title.
They did this by recording their seventh win in their last match in the second phase of the 2013/2014 league, after playing seven matches in Group A of the competition.
In the match played at the Indoor Sports Hall of the Kwara state stadium, they beat Sunshine Queens of Akure in Ondo State 67-50.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the second phase of the league started on Friday, May 2.
In the match against Sunshine Queens, the Lagos-based team started on a good note in the first quarter, with the quarter ending 12-15 against Sunshine Queens.
They continued their dominance in the second quarter by scoring 22 points while their opponents could garner only 11 points.
In the third quarter, Sunshine Queens had 10 points while the eventual winners scored 14 points.
First Deepwater coach, Lateef Erinfolanmi, told NAN after the match that his players performed below expectations in spite of the win.
Everybody wants to go home. They are tired. But thank God we won. We will just go back to Lagos now and rest before we start preparations for the final eight play-offs.
"But, it is clear that they (his players) did not play to expectations like they did in the previous matches," Erinfolami told NAN.
Also commenting on the match, Sunshine Queens coach, Shola Aluko, said his players too were not at their best.
In the first half, my players were not themselves, which was not a technical error but probably because of tension.
But they came back into the game in the third quarter which unfortunately was not enough to hold our opponents.
"However, there was an improvement in this match, compared to what both teams played in the first phase where they beat us with a margin of almost 30 points. But now we reduced it to 17.
"But the truth still remains that my players can do better than what they did this night," Aluko said.
In the other match played in Group B, last season's runners-up, First Bank, beat Dolphins 61-48 to also record their seventh win in the second phase.
With the results, Firstdeep Water and First Bank won their groups and will be joined by six other clubs for the final eight play-offs in Lagos in June.
NAN reports that the second phase of the league which ended Friday had started with 16 teams.
Only four teams in each of the two eight-team groups will qualify for the play-offs.