Deepwater retain Nigerian women’s basketball title

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First Deepwater have maintained their dominance of the Nigerian women’s basketball league as they retained their title at the close of the 2012/13 season late on Saturday. Deepwater defeated hard-fighting Dolphins 82-74 in a very entertaining final held at the National Stadium in Lagos to keep the trophy. It was their fourth straight season of winning the Zenith Bank League for women.

Dolphins had defeated former champions and powerhouse First Bank at the semi-final stage on Thursday but some spectators still believed their victory was a fluke and therefore came in for the Saturday final match of the playoffs to watch a blowout by Deepwater who featured more experienced and bigger-sized players. They didn’t see the blowout but instead applauded as both teams combined to give fans one of the best games ever seen in the Nigerian women’s basketball.

“It was a good game; I believe the crowd like it. Dolphins have surprised everyone; they tried very hard. It was a tough one and good for the game,” the Deepwater coach Lati Erinfolami told The Punch on Saturday.

Dolphins made the first point but then the champions caught up and took the lead through the break with scores at 38-31. Just as they did at the semi finals stage, the Dolphins stage a comeback fight when action resumed and cut the gap to 46-44 at the end of the first five minutes. The high point of the game came when Dolphins eventually tied the game at 50-50. Deepwater pressed back and took fresh lead at 58-53 at end of the third quarter. The Sports Hall became frenzy when the Dolphins took 8-points scoring run to take the lead at 66-64 in the fourth quarter but could not hold on in the face of composed play by the Deepwater ladies who held on to the end.

Amaka Nwakanma was the star of the evening and eventually led both sides on scoring with 29 points. She won the overall scoring award for the season in the 16-team league. The Highest Rebounder and Blocked Shots prizes were won by Evelyn Akhiator of First Bank whose team also won the third place match over Sunshine Angels of Akure. Nkechi Akashile was voted the Most Valuable Player in three straight seasons.