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.