Lagos Girls thank motherluck against Delta

The age long rivalry between Lagos and Delta States female basketball team at the sports festival was rekindled Saturday evening when both side clashed in a group-B top of the billing pairing.

The encounter dubbed 'final before the final' was watched by capacity crowd who cheer the teams all the way, with the Delta girls coached by former international forward, Lateef Erinfolami looking good to carry the day but had themselve to blame at the end of hostility.

The girls from oil rich Delta State were leading their Lagos counterpart 44-40 points with less than two minutes left in the fourth quarter but could not sustain the tempo due to complacency resulting from frequent turn-overs while the Adewumi Aderemi coached Lagos girls were calm and focus capitalising on the numerous mistakes of the Asaba-based Delta team to win the encounter 51-48 points.

With the win recorded by the Lagos State female team it is yet to be seen if they will be able to carry on to the final April 16 and reclaim the festival gold medal it lost to Delta State two years ago during the 14th National Sports Festival in Abuja.

Lagos had beaten Delta to the festival gold medal in the 2000 and 2002 national sports festival held in Bauchi and Edo States respectively but lost the thrid attempt in Abuja in 2004.

Bayelsa harmer Anambra 89-41

Bayelsa State male basketball team Saturday evening send a clear signal to other would-be gold medal contender at the 15th National Sports Festival tagged "Gateway Games 2006" holding in Ogun State that it qualifications for the main basketball event of the festival was not a fluke when it handed down a 89-41 points defeat of hapless Anambra State.

The encounter which was one sided as the Bayelsian boys raided the Anambra team defense area at will with good dribbling run excellent offensive and defensive play which will make some premier league team to green with envy saw a beautiful combination between the guards and forward players of the Coast line state team pilling pressure upon pressure on the Anambnra team whose coach seems lost for idea of how to counter the fast offense of his opponent.

The Daniel Iremiren and Thomas inspired Bayelsa side will today confront Nasarawa in one of the group-A matches in their bid to fight for one of the two semi-finals ticket in a group that has Lagos, Kaduna, Anambra, Nasarawa and host Ogun States.

Kano State had the better of Borno State with a 69=60 points win to pick the valuable two points which is vital to their campaign in group-B while Imo girls got the two points at stake without much ado as their group-A opponent Borno failed to show-up.

Today's pairing:

Abia Vs Imo (f)

Katsina Vs Edo (f)

Kaduna Vs Lagos (m)

Borno Vs Yobe (m)

Nasarawa Vs Bayelsa (m)

Delta Vs Abia (m)

Borno Vs Bauchi (f)

Oyo Vs Kano (m)

Lagos Vs Katsina (f)

Ogun Vs Anambra (m)