Basketball in Africa

In-form Dodan Warriors basketball club small forward Abdulwahab Yahaya was instrumental to the 69-67 points win for the Atlantic conference leaders over former league champions Comets on Saturday in Lagos.
The week-13 Game-49 pairing kept fans on the edge of their seats throughout the four quarters of the explosive game of the 2011/2012 DStv Premier Basketball League game as Comets coach, Ayo Bakare made some decisive inputs to his side to rattle the Coach Adeka Daudu tutored Warriors. The performance gave pundits who had predicted a one-sided game against Comets to retreat following a 15-13 points win in the first quarter.
But Warriors charged back like wounded warriors' in the second quarter to take a point lead into the break with a 16-13 points win for a 29-28 points advantage. Fresh from the break, Yahaya and his teammates mounted a major offense on the Comets in order to maintain their invisibility in the conference with a 20-17 points to open up a four points lead into the last quarter but Coach Bakare proved his mettle as one of the best coach in the domestic scene when he propelled his young and inexperienced side to match the Warriors strength for strength. It resulted in the reduction of the margin to two points and almost created an upset but a three point attempt by its point guard Victor Ugo missed its target at the buzzer.
Yahaya led the floor with a double of 21 points, 17 rebounds and gave 4 assists while the duo of Solomon Idoko and Oladipupo Osunnubi added 12 and 10 points to help the Warriors survive a huge scare of the season. In the other games played in the Atlantic and Savannah conferences, Police Baton of Lagos lost at home to defending champions Royal Hoopers of Port Harcourt by 67-84 points (12-23, 15-28, 15-18, 25-15).
Immigration of Kano continued its resurgence for a place in the playoffs with a 76-52 points win over Bauchi Nets while Niger Potters of Minna defeated visiting Defenders of Abuja by 91-86 points to maintain its third position on the conference table.