DStv basketball play off: Pillars, Mentors, others square for semi-final

The two semi-final games of the 2013/2014 season of the DStv Premier Basketball League will hold on Friday at the Sports Hall of the National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos.
Group A leader and defending champion, Kano Pillars basketball club, will take on Group B runner-up, Gombe Bulls basketball club, at 4pm, while Group B, winner Mark Mentors basketball club of Abuja, battles Dodan Warriors basketball club of Lagos, at 6pm.
Pillars, led by prolific scorer, Abubakar Usman, who poured in 31 points in the 84-79 big win over Dodan Warriors basketball club on Match Day-3 on Tuesday, won all its three group games against Warriors (84-79), Union Bank (88-71) and recorded the highest point margin defeat of Plateau Peaks by 93-53 points to earn maximum points in the group.
Its semi-final opponent, Gombe Bulls, posted an impressive 2-1 record win over Islanders (45-42) and Oluyole Warriors (53-34), but lost to Mark Mentors by 58-76 points.
The second semi-final match-up between Mentors and the Warriors saw both teams earning points like the two first semi-final opponents.
Mentors won all it Group B games against Oluyole Warriors (82-61), Gombe Bulls (76-58) and Islanders (53-50), while Dodan Warriors, who gave Pillars some moment to reflect on in both sides last Group A pairing on Tuesday, finished the preliminary round with 2-1 record just like Gombe Bulls defeating Plateau Peaks and Union Bank (71-57 and 65-52) before going down to Pillars (79-84).
The Pillars versus Bulls game have been described as a walk-over given Kano Pillars pedigree in the league as a team that possess some of the best players on the local scene.
Most pundits say Coach Abdulrahman Mohammed and his Gombe Bulls side will have their hands full as Pillars will not give them any room to operate and posited that Pillars are already through to the final but were quick to add that Pillars should not be too complacent like Islanders, who were shocked by the Bulls (45-42) and the first day of the play-off, which became the greatest undoing of the Atlantic Conference regular season winner.
The Mark Mentors, Dodan Warriors match-up would be an epic battle as both sides share lots of similarities with several players on the roster of the Abuja-based Mentors have at one time or the other played for Dodan Warriors in the past.
They include Mentors assistant coach, Chris Okoh, while Mentors head coach, Peter Ahmedu, was until last season in-charge of the Warriors coaching crew.
Many believe this factor will work in favour of the Mentors.