Sports
Ikechukwu Leads Hoopers Past Rockets
Rivers Hoopers thrashed NAF Rockets 87-54 last Thursday in Port Harcourt.
Ikechukwu Benjamin led two other back court players in double figures scoring a seasons high 24 points and 2 steals, Emmanuel Balogun made 14 points and 4 rebounds while Ronald Alalibo added 12 points and 2 steals.
Ikechukwu started like a house on fire from jump ball wasting no time to roll in a 3 point shot with just 1:57 seconds into the first quarter.
By the end of the first half, the former Lagos Warriors guard had reached double figures with 14 points and 2 steals. Each attempt made on his shooting was with confidence and precision and showed he was having a fun-filled day at the office. The Abia state born guard rolled in 87.5 per cent of his shooting, scoring 3 of his 7 three-point shots.
NAF Rockets were led by Emeka Ajaigbu with 15 points and 6 rebounds while John A. contributed 10 points and 4 rebounds but the visitors were made to suffer 24 turnovers while the KingsMen made 16 steals off them.
Despite dominating the game from start to finish, the Port Harcourt side had a quiet shooting in the third quarter, scoring just 17 points – their lowest of all the four quarters. There were also moments of complacency but the Rockets did little to capitalise on the occasional poor shooting by the Hoopers.
Rivers Hoopers coach, Ogoh Odaudu rated his team average despite the convincing win over Rockets.
“I am not too impressed with what happened, people will say that 33 points is much, it is not and we don’t have any business giving up 54 points. It is something we are going to work on,” said Odaudu.
“We knew we were going to beat them but you can’t play such kind of defence against a team like this. We really need to step up.
“They look at a team they know they are going to beat and then become relaxed saying to themselves that “no matter how we are going to play we will still win them” and so they don’t put in 100 per cent.
”I want them to come into a game and put in a 100 or 120 per cent. I”ll rate them a 60 per cent or a 50 per cent in this game,” Oduadu explained.
NAF Rockets coach, Shehu Ismail believes the presence of some of his absent players would have made a difference in the game.
“Despite the loss it is still okay with the way the game turned out. Some of our players could not come because some are working, others are schooling and you see the Nigerian factor coming to play here. If they were here, I think they would have made a difference, we wouldn’t have lost with this big margin,” said Ismail.
Rivers Hoopers should expect a tougher test on Saturday when they host Hoops & Read in Port Harcourt.
The Sports Writers Association of Nigeria ( SWAN) Rivers State Chapter has set up five standing working committees on Tuesday, in its general congress.
At the playoff held at the Lagos Lawn Tennis Club, Onikan, the team of Canice Abua, Michael Emmanuel, Daniel Adeleye, and Abubakar Yusuf was majestic as they restored Nigeria’s hope in a sport that once gave the country so much joy.
Speaking after the final game, Nigeria Tennis Federation (NTF) President, Victor Ochei, said the Davis Cup feat is the stepping stone to better days in the sport, adding that the federation has set up programmes that will help the budding talents across the country play at the same level as their counterparts in other tennis-developed countries.
Ochei said: “The whole aim of having this new board is to lift the sport to the level we used to be. I tell you, tennis is taking a new shape in Nigeria. We are putting everything and anything to make that work happen.”
Ochei said that the NTF has looked at sponsorships and how to get the emerging players compete at the same level with their peers elsewhere, adding that the federation is working on organising local competitions and helping the players to compete in international championships.
“We believe that with what we are doing now, sponsors will come to us to organise new competitions. But beyond that, there’s a strategic growth development plan, a 10-year development plan, which the board is working on.
“The programme will ensure that we catch them young. This is because we believe that to create champions, we must start grooming them early. The champions you are seeing today were those groomed yesterday.”
“The process of building new champions will include building the coaches, the players, the infrastructure and sensitising the parents so that we can start catching them as young as age five to six.
“By the time that we groom them through 10 years of training, at age 15, 16, you will see fantastic professional players.”
To achieve the federation’s plans, Ochei admits that the NTF needs a lot of investment, adding that the board is working at realising the funds quietly and tenaciously.
The NTF president acknowledged the contributions of former international stars like Nduka Odizor and Sadiq Abdullahi to the bid to rejuvenate Nigerian tennis, adding that NTF is open to collaborating with former players who know what it takes to play at the highest level of the sport.
He said, “Nduka Odizor is around as one of our VIP personalities. He has been psyching up the boys in the battle with Uzbekistan. He will not enter the court to play, but his mere presence is enough motivation to the boys, who will want to be like him in the future.
“You see, the type of support the Odizors, the Imonities and the Abdullahis got in their time is no longer there, but we are revamping it with the support of our stakeholders in the Diaspora.
“It will appear to take us some time, but I can tell you that the Diaspora support is massive.”
In its bid to get good results in this year’s Commonwealth Games, the National Sports Commission (NSC) has disbursed N200 million as training grants to 26 athletes.
The 2026 Commonwealth Games will be held in Glasgow, Scotland.
The NSC stated that the grants were disbursed through its Elite and Podium Board, noting that N200 million was allocated to select top-performing athletes.
The beneficiaries are both foreign-based and home-based, the NSC said, adding that it will cater for their training and preparation expenses.
According to the NSC, the recipients span several sports, including athletics, wrestling, weightlifting, and para-sports, in line with the Commission’s mandate to prioritise athletes’ welfare and high-performance development.
The Commission added that the disbursement follows the establishment of the Elite and Podium Board, created to implement a scientific and institutionalised support system aimed at sustaining peak performances by Nigerian athletes at major international competitions.
NSC Director General, Bukola Olopade, said the Commission, under the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, was established to restore confidence and provide renewed hope for Nigerian sportsmen and women by placing strong emphasis on athlete welfare.
“The training grants disbursed to 26 athletes across different sports followed a careful and professional selection process by the Yusuf Ali-led Elite and Podium Board. This is our way of reassuring our athletes that their welfare remains our utmost priority,” he said.
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