First Bank basketball club of Nigeria Friday defeated her Nigeria rival, First Deepwater basketball by 88-48 points in the first quarter-finals of the 15th FIBA Africa Champions Club for Women at the ISPR gymnase, Ouidah, Benin Republic.
The Elephant Girls who paraded eight Nigeria senior women national team players overwhelmed the First Deepwater players from the blast of the referee whistle to the end of the game winning in all four quarters.
With the win, First Bank now became the first team to book a place in the semi-finals where they will slug it out against the winner of the quarter-final duel between A’Politecnica basketball club of Mozambique and Interclube basketball club of Angola on Saturday.
First Bank won in all four quarters 26-12, 14-11, 26-07 and 22-18 for a final score-line of 88-48.
But First Deepwater youthful forward, Ijeoma Uchendu gave a good account of herself with good post moves amid experience forward lined-up by First Bank in the game which turned one-sided as she scored 11 points and grabbed 5 rebounds.
First Bank America import, Danielle Green, led the floor with a double double effort of 19 points, 11 rebounds and 5 assists; Mexican-born guard Brisa Silva added 18 points, Chioma Udeaja contributed 16 points and 8 rebounds just as the duo of Funmilayo Ojelabi and US-base Rashidat Sadiq contributed 13 and 10 points respectively.
First Bank basketball club head coach, Adewumi Aderemi praised the gallant First Deepwater basketball players but thumb-up his ward for being so fantastic.
Coach Aderemi declared emphatically that nothing will stop his team from clinching the diadem they last won in 2003.
‘We are set for all oppositions in this competition and I want to say with due respect to other teams that nothing will stop us from being crowned champion this time after almost seven years since we last won it in 2003 as we are tired of placing third every time.
‘Though we won our quarter-final game against our Nigeria opponent, First Deepwater by a wide margin that does not take away the fact that they are a good side remember they came top at the zone-III qualifiers in Abidjan, the coach concluded.
Olusegun Ikuesan
FIBA AFrica