*Team wins first game in Sahara Conference
By; MOHAMMED ABDULLAHI, Dakar
The coach of Nigeria’s Basketball Premier League reigning champions, Ogoh Odaudu has promised Nigerians qualification to the 2024 Basketball Africa League (BAL) playoff finals in Kigali as Rivers Hoopers defeated home team, AS Douanes in their first game of the ongoing Sahara Conference in Dakar, Senegal.
Coach Odaudu visibly elated and confident after the team’s 77 to 68 points win over AS Douanes, stated categorically that Rivers Hoopers will not just be participants in the competition but determined to pick one of the available playoff finals tickets.
According to Odaudu, “this is our second participation at the BAL and unlike the inaugural edition where we participated blindly due to our inexperience, this time around we have set up a goal of qualification to the finals in Kigali and this is evident in our win against the highly tactical home team.”
The Nigerian team although, started the game shakily losing the first quarter by 5 points but gained confidence in the second quarter as the deficit was reduced to 2 points.
In the third quarter despite an almost full 10,000 capacity at the Dakar Arena overwhelmingly supporting the home team, Rivers Hoopers escaped with an 8 points lead and cemented the win in the 4th quarter with a 9 points difference.
Devine Eke, with a man of the performance scored a joint career high 31 points, 12 total rebounds, 3 assists and two steals.
Earlier in the first game of the Sahara Conference, debutants APR of Rwanda stunned US Monastir of Tunisia by 89 to 84 points.
The game dramatically went overtime as Obadiah Noel of APR beat the last minute time-buzzer with an incredible 3-points shot to tie the game at 78 all at the end of the 4th quarter.
The Sahara Conference drama continues on Sunday, 5th May with match day two. Rivers Hoopers plays APR Rwanda at 3:30pm Nigerian Time while US Monastir takes on AS Douanes by 6:30pm.
