Customs down Equity Bank Hawks to finish fifth in inaugural AWBL

 

ALEXANDRIA (Egypt) - Nigeria's Customs picked an 83-53 win over Kenya's Equity Bank to finish their Africa Women’s Basketball League (AWBL) campaign with a fifth-place ranking. 

The Abdulrahman Mohammed-coached side finished the 10-team competition with a 4-3 win-loss ratio with the tactician happy that his charges executed despite missing three of their key players Olaoluwatomi Taiwo, Maranne Johnson as well as Isabel Gonzalez. 

"The three had emergencies that forced them to travel... the rest were able to carry the load.  We got everything right today and remained consistent throughout the four quarters.

Our box out and transition defense were excellent and we had players stepping up to give the captain help offensively. They left everything on the court and it was near perfect," the tactician offered. 

Captain Nkem Akaraiwe scored 21 points in 15.33 minutes to help the Nigerian side pick a 37-28 leading in the opening half that had 6 lead changes and 1 tie. 

Customs capitalised on each of Equity's turnover, scoring 17 points from the Kenyan side's 10 turnovers as the latter struggled to take care of the ball on the offense.

Grace Malu was the bankers' best scorer in the first with 10 as coach Benson Oluoch's most trusted lieutenants, skipper Melissa Akinyi and Betty Kananu who have in previous matches put up the numbers went scoreless in the opening half.

Equity continued to trail in the second half with 48-42 the closest they came in the opening five minutes but Marilyn Ogoigbe's perimeter shot made it a 10-point game at 52-42 with 4:46 minutes on the clock.

Nofisat Jimoh and Favour Opara scored in the closing minutes of the third to give Customs a 60-46 advantage heading to the last stanza. 

Favour scored back-to-back treys in the opening minute of the fourth to take her side's advantage to 20, adding five more points for a Customs 71-46 lead, a run that was finally cut by Melissa first basket of the match but it was downhill from then on as the Nigerians went 23-7 up for the win.

Nkem was the side's top scorer with 27 points, 9 rebounds, 6 assists, 4 steals and 2 blocks to finish with a match-high efficiency ranking of 44. Favour added 21 points to the tally as Ebere Okeke completed the double digits list with 10. 

Malu led the numbers for Equity with 18 points and 7 rebounds. 

"Most of my top players were not fit and we had to push our bench but they couldn't match up. We had the least number of turnovers in this game and more steals but we could not convert on the paint. It has, however, been a good learning experience and I know we will come back better," coach Oluoch said.

FIBA