Rivers Hooper wins Crown Elite basketball championship
By Ifeanyi Eduzor
NBBF Premier League champion, Rivers Hooper continued their dominance of the country’s domestic basketball when they defeated UniLag baseball team 79-71 points to emerge champion of this year’s second edition of the annual Crown Elite basketball championship.
In an entertaining finals held Saturday at the Indoor Sports Hall, National Stadium, Lagos the Port Harcourt based team relied on experience and sheer determination to overcome their more youthful opponents who never gave them chance to dominate them totally in a game that was full of excitement and action.
While Hoopers won the first quarter by 22-19 points, the UniLag boys came out strongly in the second quarter which they won 40-37.
However, it was Hoopers who look more purposeful in the third quarter which they won 60-54 before wrapping up the game in the dying minutes of the last quarter to emerge champion.
In the third place match, Lagos Legends defeated Lagos Islanders 75-40 to emerge as the third best team of the championship while Onyebuchi Nwaewu of Hoopers won the Most Valuable Player award
Speaking after the finals, organiser of the competition, Hanson Oguche expressed happiness at the successful completion of the 5-day tournament promising that next years edition will not only involve more teams but will be better organised even as he stated that with more of such competitions, Nigeria’s basketball will witness massive improvement.
” I’ m highly impressed with the talents I saw at the championship and the skills of our players which is an indication that the country boasts of talented players who need more of this type of tournament to improve their game.
” Right now, we’ re going to see how to make the next edition more successful which might included involving more teams because we want to take basketball to another level in the country’, he stated.
Eight teams namely; Ebun Comets, NBBF Premier League defending champion, Kwara Falcons, Lagos Islanders, UniLag, Rivers Hoopers, Lagos Legend, Dodan Warriors and Raptors.
The winner of the tournament wen home with N1.5 million while the first and second runners- up got N1million and N 500,000 respectively.
