Pius Ayinor
19 November 2008
Lagos — Notwithstanding Union Bank Basketball Club's Monday night lost to Kano Pillars in the final match of the FIBA Africa Zone 3 qualifiers by 87-74, coach of the team, Ayinla Johnson, has assured fans that the team will bounce back early enough for the continental challenge ahead.
Pillars and Union Bank qualified for the final play-off of the 23 African Championship for Men, billed to hold in Tunis, Tunisia from December 11 to 21.
He said: "We lost to experience; it is not that my players didn't play well. Pillars paraded quite a crop of experienced players. The match taught us some serious lessons in personnel. Now we know what we are up against in the continent and that if we want to do well, we need to step up a gear. We certainly cannot face the rest of Africa peddling this form. We will have to beef up in different departments of the game. However, one thing I can assure of is that we will do well on the continent. We will prepare long and hard."
Pillars' coach Sani Ahmed, who was graceful in victory, was a wee bit philosophical about his side's victory. He said: "We are grateful to God for the successes and we give him the honour and glory. But we are not going to be resting on our oars. The opposition will be even more qualitative in Tunisia."
Both teams had qualified for the African finals from a list of other six teams from the West African sub-region. The game itself was a lot tougher than any of the ones played throughout the qualifier tournament.
After the jump ball, Union ran ahead for the next five minutes but would soon be caught up by the Pillars, who would end up winning the first quarter at 21-20. By the end of the second quarter the champions were still up, at 43-41. They held tightly to their lead in the third and fourth although intermittently, there were lead changes. Overall, they lost the lead to Union ten times; and there were nine ties.
Usman Abubakar was glittering on the side of the champions and was commanding on the court for his team, shooting 30 points with 84.2 percent success from the free throw line. The expertise of the Kano side at the free throw level helped them in dominating the match. The scored a high percentage of 75 in this department, as against the 56 of their beaten opponents, Union.
The victory meant for Pillars that they will be arriving Tunisia a seeded team and so would be able to avoid some of the continental giants in the early group rounds.
Meanwhile, the First Bank Ladies, nicknamed Elephant Girls, are already in Nairobi, Kenya contesting in the final rounds of the FIBA Africa Championship Cup for Women. The former African champions are up against 15 other teams from different zones in the continent. The female tournament comes to an end on November 29.
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