Pius Ayinor
24 November 2009
Lagos — Newly crowned Africa club basketball champions First Bank Elephants returned to Lagos yesterday after their Sunday defeat of ABC of Cote d'Ivoire to emerge the super queens of the continent. The Nigerian league champions defeated the Ivorian ladies 64-55 in the final match played in Cotonou, Republic of Benin, on Sunday.
First Bank coach, Aderemi Adewunmi, said on arrival yesterday into the country the biggest reason for his own happiness is in the fact that they had not let down those who believed in them.
"All the hard work has now paid off and we are so happy we didn't disappoint those who believed in us and supported us all through."
Their current victory means the Elephant Girls have won the African clubs trophy for the second time. They first did that in 2003 in Maputo, Mozambique - the same year the national female team won the African Nations Cup.
The victory becomes more poignant given the fact that the side arrived in Cotonou only as wild card entry having failed to qualify from the FIBA Africa Zone 3 play-off held in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire one week before the African event began in Cotonou.
First Bank did not drop a game all through in Benin. In the final game, they won the first three quarters by 15-13, 15-9 and 19-17 while ABC took the last by 16-15, which was not enough to erase the advantage that they had piled up in the opening three quarters of the game.
In those opening three quarters, Brisa Silva, Funmilayo Ojelabi, Mfon Udoka and Adeola Olanrewaju were all at their scintillating best, amassing points at random to make the come back of their opponents in the last quarter to matter scantily.
Overall, they hit a total of 43 of the 64 the team scored, with Silva leading the chorus with 17. Ojelabi and Udoka hit 13 and 11 each. Olanrewaju's dexterity at rebounds was also of note in the team's victory run. She grabbed 13.
Defending champions of the African club championship Desportivo of Mozambique defeated Interclube of Angola 57-50 for the bronze medal. Desportivo won the cup back-to-back in 2007 and 2008. The fair-play trophy went to Energie Basketball Club of Benin Republic.
First Bank guard, Danielle Green left Benin as the Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the 15th Africa Champions Club for Women. Green and Rahidat Sadiq were named in the competition Top-5 players list.
First Bank will represent Africa at the FIBA World Club Championship next year.
FINAL RANKING
1st - First Bank (NGR)
2nd - A.B.C (CIV)
3rd - Desportivo (MOZ)
4th - Interclube (ANG)
5th - A'politecnica (MOZ)
6th - C.S.A (CIV)
7th - First Deepwater (NGR)
8th - K.P.A (KEN)
9th - SPORTING (EGY)
10th - ENERGIE (BEN)
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2009 This Day. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
