Rivers Hoopers In Shock Home Loss

Rivers Hoopers at the
weekend lost their second game of the DSTV Basketball League season by 65-71 at home to Delta Force in Port Harcourt.
It took some brilliance of the former champions to break down the defense of Delta Force as Hoopers led 14-8 in the first quarter but the second quarter was a cagey affair as Delta Force leveled the points 19-19 before opening up a 29-37 points lead against their hosts at half time.
Things went down the hill for Hoopers in the 3rd quarter as the team managed just 14 points which came mostly from free throws. Disappointingly, only 15 of the 33 free throws won in the entire game, got into the basket.
Hoopers Shooting guard Ronald Alalibo again proved his worth scoring two three-pointers en route to a game high 18 points. Former Delta Force power forward, Somtochukwu Managor (11) and Hoopers point guard, Victor James (12) were the only Hoopers players who got double digits in the game.
After the game, Hoopers coach, Ogoh Odaudu, blamed the loss on complacency on the part of the players and management.
“One word, over confidence that’s just the basic line. We came and beat them silly by 28 points. They felt that we would come back and do the same thing but they failed to realise that basketball is played on the court and not on paper.”
The former Lagos Islanders coach believes the management of the team should take large part of the blame.
”Also on the part of management, we had our short comings. We didn’t organize the team enough like we should have done. Most of the blame should go on the management we should have handled the situation better.” Odaudu concluded.