Rivers Hoopers maintained their unbeaten run at the FIBA Africa Zone 3 Qualifiers in Contonou with an 80-63 points win over Harbel Pointers of Liberia on Friday.
Buchi Nwaiwu scored 17 points and found himself on the double-double watch with the addition of 9 rebounds. Solomon Ajegbeyi added 17 points, 6 rebounds and two assists to go with it. The duo had two steal each while defending in the game. Ikechukwu Benjamin contributed 12 points and 5 rebounds.
Nwaiwu got off the bench to score 7 first half points and 7 rebounds while Ajegbeyi had 8 points in the first half as the team took an 11-point advantage heading into half time 38-27. Hoopers were forced to get 70% of their 18 points scored in the second quarter from the free throw line. They however converted 24 of 40 from the line in the entire game.
Benjamin shot a three with 3 minutes remaining in the third to stretch Hoopers’ lead to 16 points, 47-31. The Nigerian representatives shot 4/16 from the deep.
Pointers fought hard in the last quartet scoring 23-24 points but Hoopers pulled out of reach for their 4th straight win of the competition.
Dividson Samuel scored a game high 19-point, 11 rebound double-double and five steals while Paye Emmanuel was also on the verge of a double-double, recording 13 points and 9 rebounds. He added three steals and two assists for Harbel Pointers.
Earlier, Civil Defenders defeated Braves Customs of Ghana 66-53 points for their third win of the competition. While Hoopers have 4 wins, Elan Sportif and Civil Defenders have won 3 games each. A win on Saturday will seal Hoopers top spot as champions of the FIBA Africa Zone 3.
Rivers Hoopers will play their last game of the competition against AS Police of Niger at 12 pm before Civil Defenders take on the host, Elan Sportif at 2pm on Saturday.
Hoopers head coach Ogoh Odaudu was not impressed with his team’s performance.
“It’s a great feeling any time you win but today’s win I wasn’t particularly happy. I don’t think we played the way we were supposed to play the players were a little bit relaxed. After overcoming the home team yesterday they felt they could just come and get a victory .I wasn’t too impressed with what happened today. All in all it was a good victory and I am happy we cemented our qualification in the AfroLeague.”
Odaudu wants to remain unbeaten to avoid permutations at the end of the competition on Saturday.
“Everybody wants to go home unbeaten so we are going to do our best. We don’t want a situation we are going to be tied on points and start counting and doing mathematics. We want to take the victory tomorrow and know we are outright winners that’s what we are planning to do.”
Harbel Pointers head coach, John Ming took positives from the competition despite failing to qualify for the AfroLeague starting in January.
“It was a learning experience for majority of my players apart from 3 of my players the rest have not been to the competition before. It is our first time in the top league in our country and we got to the final and eliminated top teams that have been in the top league for 10 or 20 years. This is our first time at FIBA Africa Zone 3 and with the record set we are not the whipping boys. The game is physical, requires lot of energy and physical play which we will work on and when next we come for the competition it is going to be a better and bigger team,” he assured.
