First Bank ends drought, grabs gold

The Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF) was saved the agony of ending the year without a win in an International Basketball Federation (FIBA) organised event when First Bank Basketball club claimed the gold medal at the FIBA Africa Champions Cup for Women after slamming past Abidjan Basketball Club by 64-55 points at the Palais de Sports in Cotonu on Sunday.

Tutored by Adewunmi Aderemi, the Nigerian League champions proved their disastrous outing at the Zone III qualifiers was behind them to win seven straight matches and claim the giant trophy after a six-year drought.

With Mexican-import, Brisa Silva; national team captain, Funmi Ojelabi and Mfon Udoka running riots on the court, Abidjan Basketball Club bowed in the first three quarters 15-13, 15-09 and 19-17 points to give the Nigerians a 10-point advantage in the last quarter.

A last minute efforts by the Ivoirians could not ruffle First Bank feathers as they won the converted trophy despite falling 15-16 in the fourth quarter to a vicious challenge from ABC driven by Fatoumata Camara, who got a double efforts of 23 points and 12 rebounds.

Silva led the First Bank team with 17 points and three rebounds, Ojelabi added 13 points and three rebounds, Udoka assisted with 11 points and five rebounds, while Adeola Olarewaju contributed 13 rebounds to establish their supremacy over Abidjan Basketball Club, which they defeated 57-56 in the group stage of the 10-day championship.

Road to glory

To emerge Queens of club basketball on the continent, First Bank out-dunked Mozambican A’ Politecnica 74-54, slammed host Energie of Benin with 79-35 point victory, outwitted Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) basketball club 84-29, sent compatriot First Deepwater to the 5-8 classification stage with an 88-48 point victory in the quarterfinals and defeated Interclube of Angola 69-65 in the semi-final.

And honours too

Apart from the first prize trophy, the Nigerians carted away different individual honours.

Briza was named the Best tri-pointer, while First Bank Guard, Danielle Green, emerged as the Most Valuable Player in the competition, also getting named alongside Sadiq on the competition’s Best Five list.