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Pillars win Nigeria basketball league

Pius Ayinor
Kano Pillars Saturday night defeated Customs 71-53 to win the Nigeria DStv Premier Basketball League title. The match was played at the National Stadium in Lagos.
The Pillars were the favourites to win the trophy and they only gave their fans cause to doubt in the first minutes when Customs took a four-point lead. Soon after, the champions caught up and then proved why they had been the DStv League champions five previous times before the victory of Saturday.
Customs coach Scott Nnaji accepted the defeat honourably.
He said, “The Pillars have been at this stage many times before and so they understood how to handle every situation. We were just playing our first finals in a long time and it should tell in many ways.
“The advantage we lacked was playing together for a long time and get both local and international exposures like our opponents today.”
Pillars coach Sani Ahmed hailed his players for their show of determination through the season.
Pillars arrived in Lagos with full government support with the former Chairman of the Nigeria Football Federation and now Chairman of the Kano State Sports Commission Alhaji Ibrahim Galadima leading the delegation.
Both teams will know represent the country in the African club competition later this year. The last time the Customs men qualified for the continent was more than a decade ago with Israel Fumudoh as their centre forward. They failed to honour their continental ticket.
Before the final match Rivers Hoopers had beaten 71-53 in the third place match.

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