Women’s basketball is presently on my mind.
I spent the last 10 days in the city of Luanda, Angola, undergoing my annual ritual of attending the finals of the FIBA Africa Women’s Cup championship, a competition between the champion clubs across the African continent.
First Bank Basketball Club, the only club from the entire West African Zone 3 of FIBA to attend the championship this year, got to the semi-finals again before losing out to the team they defeated last year – Primeiro Agosto of Angola. The Angolan club went on to win the trophy this year.
Last year’s winners and the most successful women’s basketball club in the championship’s history, Interclube of Angola, dramatically lost to a supremely determined and hardworking First Bank Club in this year’s third place match.
So, for two consecutive years, Nigeria’s Elephant Girls have emerged as third place winners. They have been, for three years now, consistently ‘knocking on the door’ of becoming champions and most observers here can feel it coming.
Odegbami: Back From Angola – Women’s Basketball On My Mind!
