Basketball Play-off: Rivers Hoopers rout Oluyole Warriors, Pay Tribute to Keshi

[contextly_auto_sidebar]

By Queen John

Rivers Hoopers on Wednesday routed Oluyole Warriors 67-42 in their second playoff game at the indoor sports hall of the National Stadium, Lagos.

Hoopers centre, Oba Orinari scored 15 points, 7 rebounds and 2 steals while Power forward Belema Alamina contributed 12 points, 4 rebounds and 2 steals in the game.

The Port Harcourt side still fell short of their free throws but held on without too many turnovers all through the game recording a total of 8 turnovers, 14 less than what was recorded in Tuesday’s encounter against Nigeria Customs.

Before jump ball, a minute silence was observed in the honour of the former captain and coach of the Nigeria’s national football team, the Super Eagles, Stephen Okechukwu Keshi. The Big Boss as he is fondly called died in the early hours of the day.

The former champions took the lead from the opening quarter (15-18) but it was not devoid of some inadequacies that led to the game tied on three occasions in the first quarter 3:19 (10-10), 2:38 (13-13), 1:21 (15-15).

Hoopers however continued from where they left off in the first with two successive shots from Alamina building a ten point lead after 2 minutes in the second quarter. Afterwards, the two sides failed to get on the offence for over 2 minutes which was later disrupted with the Port Harcourt side displaying a better offensively play thereby ending the second with a twelve point lead (21-33).

Out of sorts Warriors failed to cope with the compact defending by Hoopers who were domineering in the third and likewise in the final quarter. Alamina’s dunk with four minutes left in the clock stole the show as Hoopers held on to a convincing victory over the Ibadan based team.

Hoopers coach, Ogoh Odaudu is excited his team was able to put up an outstanding performance against Oluyole Warriors.

“They are not a weak team and they have showed they can play. It’s just that my players were a little bit angry with what happened yesterday so they had to take it on their opponent. It was unfortunate for warriors to face us after such a heartbreaking defeat to Customs yesterday.” Said Odaudu.

The Former Nigeria International is confident of a win against Kwara Falcons on Thursday (tomorrow).

Up next for the team is a duel with regular season leaders Kwara Falcons on Thursday at the same venue.

For updates, pictures, videos, comments and other information, follow our official social media handles, Twitter @RiversHoopers, Instagram Rivers Hoopers, Facebook page Rivers Hoopers Basketball Club

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *