Zenith Bank/NBBF Women Basketball League: Dolphins beat First Bank, win second title in style
Dolphins Women’s Basketball team on Saturday at the Indoor Sports Hall of the National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos, secured their second title in style after beating the record winner of the league, First Bank Women’s Basketball team, 61-55 points after overtime, ending their quest for La-Decima, after winning the title nine times in the past.
It was definitely all Dolphins, but they had to dig deep to secure the win after First Bank rallied back to tie the game 53-53 and led it into overtime.
The champions secured the first and second quarters and deserve their win, with the President of the Nigeria Basketball Federation, Musa Kida, and the Chairman of the National Sports Commission, Shehu Dikko, present at the finals.
The GMD/CEO of Zenith Bank PlC, Dame (Dr.) Adaora Umeoji, OON, performed the official tipoff of the finals just moments after former champion, MFM defeated Royal Aces in the third place match by 70-42 points.
According to one of the sponsor, Zenith Bank Plc’s Executive Director, Mrs. Adobi Stella Nwapa who stood in for the GMD/CEO, after she had to leave the venue for another official function elsewhere, expressed her joy on how the 2025 finals panned out while also giving assurance for a better outing in 2026 when the sponsorship will get to 20th year.
“As the sole sponsor of this event, you can see how the event has transformed. The price money increase is now N15.5M,” she said.
“We were able to go live through livestreams of all the games and people in America, especially the African champions, D’Tigress, and some scouts looking at the players with the hope of recruiting them. So we are happy with the outcome and everything that happened from start till end.”
