FORMER champions and tournament favourites, Kano Pillars booked a ticket to the finals of the 2016 National final 8 of the DSTV/NBBF Premier Basketball League after beating Kwara Falcons 72-56 points in the semi final at the Indoor Sports Hall of the Lagos National Stadium on Friday.
The Sani Ahmed inspired Pillars warding off the threat from Coach Adewunmi Aderemi led team to set up Saturday's final clash against Customs Basketball Club of Lagos who have proved bookmakers wrong in this year's competition.
The team managed by Nnaji Scott and assisted by Mohammed Abba Jagu ended the fairy tale run of newly promoted Rivers Hoopers with a 69-47 points victory in the other semi final clash earlier in the day.
Somtochukwu Managor scored 16 points, 11 rebounds in his 24 minutes of play on court, but was not enough to salvage a win for a less-inspiring Hoopers side who were muscled out by Customs’ Solomon Ezra who had a game high 21points, 14 rebounds while also contributing 4 blocks.
Ironically, the Port Harcourt side under the watch of Ogoh Odaudu had a better first quarter despite losing it 11-19, but struggled in the remaining quarters (22-39, 35-54, 47-69) and could hardly make easy baskets allowing the Lagos side capitalise on their errors with domineering offensive shots.
Hoopers will return to the court of the Indoor Sports Hall of the National Stadium, Lagos on Saturday for the third and fourth classification game against Atlantic Conference winners Kwara Falcons while Kano Pillars will face Nigeria Customs in the finals same day.
The two finalists will represent Nigeria at the FIBA Zone 3 Africa Club Championship qualifiers later this year.
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