Civil Defenders Basketball Club of Abuja missed a last-gasp opportunity to claim victory and settled for a 69-69 points draw against Association Sportive de Sale of Morocco on Saturday.
The draw was in the first leg match of the Elite Final 8 of the 2019 FIBA Africa Basketball League, played at the Indoor Sports Hall of the Abuja National Stadium.
AS Sale narrowly took the first quarter by 21-20 points, with the North Africans utilising their height advantage and better collective defence.
Defenders, who conceded most points in the quarter through fouls, however, gathered impressive three-pointers to make up for their poor individual defending.
The Nigerian side recovered well in the second quarter, thanks to good blocks from Alhassan Joseph and Ozege Martins.
The quarter ended 21-15 in favour of the Defenders, with Okpe Ocheibi displaying good strength and accuracy to contribute vital points.
In the third quarter, the Moroccans found their rhythm and capitalised on Defenders’ faulty rebounds and poor recovery to take the quarter 21-13 points.
However, the highly entertaining game saved the best drama for the final quarter.
First it was Agu Ibe of the Civil Defenders who mistimed his move for what could have been crucial points for the home side.
Then, seconds to the end of the game, Ocheibi, who was by far the best player on the court with 19 points in total, was awarded a two-point free throw.
But he wasted the opportunity of what could have been the winning points for the Defenders.
The quarter ended 15-12 in favour of the Nigerian side, but it was not enough to earn them a deserved win.
Defenders will look back at the game as one in which they should have won but for their inability to convert their free throws.
But they also had the enterprising exploits of AS Sale’s Zouita Abdelhakim and El-Mahsini Yassine to contend with.
Speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria after the game, coach of the Defenders, Paul Gombwer, said his players gave a good account of themselves.
Gombwer said: “It’s a game of basketball.
“We didn’t lose the game.
“We are still in it.
“My players did well.
“We will keep working hard.
“Our strategy was to stop them from playing their free-flowing game and it worked.
“Yes, we didn’t take some of our chances and we could have won the game, but we could have lost it as well.”
NAN reports that Defenders advanced to the Elite Final 8 after finishing second in Group B behind ES Rades of Tunisia.
They had two wins from the three games played in Cotonou, the Republic of Benin.
Nigeria’s other representatives in the league, Rivers Hoopers, were stopped from reaching the Elite Final 8 by AS Sale.
Civil Defenders will hope to advance in the competition when they travel to Morocco for the second leg of the encounter.
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