Customs,and Union Bank fly Atlantic Conference’s

Vmobile Basketball Challenge: The five day Atlantic Conference of Vmobile Basketball challenge ended on Tuesday with Baba Jibril of Ebun Comets emerging as the Most Valuable Player (MVP) and three teams confirmed for the finals in Abuja in the competition. The three teams are: Ebun Comets, Nigeria Customs, and Union Bank. While the first two secured their tickets on day four of the Conference, Union Bank waded through a though time to beat Dodan Warriors on the last day.

At the end of the game,which was the first in the day, Union Bank thrashed Dodan Warriors by 69 – 57 points to confirm its ticket for the Abuja finals.

With a total of 10 points from five games, Ebun Comets emerged as winner of the Conference, followed by Nigeria Customs, which won 9 points. Union Bank secured the third position with 8 points, while Lagos Islanders came last in the competition. Although it had 6 points as Dodan Warriors and Delta Force, the team’s score points of 295 was the lowest compared to former and latter’s 318 and 325 points respectively.

The Most Valuable Player award of the Conference went to Baba Jibril of Ebun Comet, while bdulrahman Mohammed, Mike Ohiero, both of Nigeria Customs, and Oduadu Ogoh of Ebun Comets won the Highest Scorer, Best Assist, and Steals awards respectively. Ekpeyong Edem and Agbona Joshua of Union Bank and Lagos are joint winners of Rebound award. Also, Soalatan BobManuel, a.k.a Soso won the Dunk competition during the Conference.

To emerge tops, Comets defeated Nigeria Customs in the opening game of the Conference by 61 – 56 points, while Dodan Warriors and Union Bank fell victims of the Comets boys’ winning streaks in the 6th and 9th games with 79 – 64 and 64 – 61 points respectively. Lagos Islanders and Delta force succumbed to Comets’ firepower in games 11th and 14th by 58 – 62 and 55 – 56 points respectively.

Nigeria Customs, first runner-up in the Conference, had Union Bank for lunch in game five by 72 – 63 points, while Delta Force, Dodan Warriors, and Lagos Islanders could not stop the Customs when they conceded to it by 58 – 62, 66 – 75, and 52 – 68 points in games eight, twelve, and fifteen respectively.

The only game it lost was the opening match against Ebun Comets with 56 – 61 points in favour of the latter. Union Bank secured the second runner-up position through its wins against Lagos Islanders in the 2nd game, Delta Force in the 10th game, and Dodan Warriors in the 13th game with the respective points of 84 – 57, 80 – 66, and 69 – 57.

The three winners will be joined by Kano Pillars, Plateau Peaks, and Niger Potters from the Savannah Conference for the finals at the Indoor Sports Hall of the National Stadium in Abuja Friday Saturday, August 6 to Wednesday, August 10, 2005. It will be recalled that three teams: Kano Pillars, Plateau Peaks, and Niger Potters, have already qualified for the finals in the Savannah Conference, which took place in the Indoor Sports Hall of ABU Gymnasium Hall, Kaduna between July 21 and 27, 2005.