For the second consecutive year, First Bank Basketball Club have won the bronze at the FIBA Africa Champions Cup for Women, which ended yesterday in Luanda, Angola.
The Elephant Girls led from the beginning to the end and revenging their group stage loss to the defending champions, who will now leave the tournament empty-handed.
It was a resolute performance by the Nigerian sides, which at times looked jittery, especially in the last quarter, but unlike their loss in the semi final to Agosto, they had the final push to win the game.
The scores in the four quarters were 21-22, 10-22, 15-13, 15-13 for a total score of 61-70 in favour of the Nigerian team. Okoye Cecilia led the floor with 21 points and Wilson Dominic contributed 17 as they were the players on the Nigerian side that hit double figures in the tension-soaked encounter.
Inter’s mercurial point guard, Italee Lucas was limited to 14 points, while Filipe Ngidula Makanu and Gabriel Eduardo Inacio had 10 points apiece.
The disappointing result left the inter fans dejected as they walked out of the gymnasium in droves. Incidentally, First Bank enjoyed the support of Agosto fans, who will be happy that their local rivals went home without a medal.