By Chinedum Ohawusi

After five days of intense basketball matches, the Mark D Ball Women’s Basketball Championship will entre semi-finals today with First Bank of Lagos, Kada Queens of Kaduna, Sunshine Angels of Akure and Nigeria Customs slugging it out for the final tickets.

The four clubs reached the last four on Wednesday after they triumphed over their opponents in the quarter-finals.

In the semi-final matches slated for today, Thursday, January 20, 2022, Firstly Bank of Lagos will take on Kada Queens of Kaduna at 3pm; while Sunshine Angels of Akure and red hot Nigeria Customs will battle for the other spot in the final, from 5pm.

In the quarter-final matches decided, Vivian Odjvavin (12) and Remilekun Busayo (10) top scored for Sunshine Angels of Akure as they defeated Plateau Rocks 74-37.

14 points from Mofeoluwa Akinrami and 12 from Ojoma Ewaoghe saw Kada Angels of Kaduna recover from a 27-33 halftime deficit, to edge out Air Warriors of Abuja, for whom Yernadoo Aghata scored a match high 16 points, followed by Kadham Emmanuel (14) and Olivia Omaha (12) 57-51 dunks.

In the first quarter final decided, IGP Queens slumped to a 50-77 points defeat in the hands of First Bank of Lagos, whose StarGirl, Ifunanya Okoro poured in 19 points.

But the match of the day was saved for the last, and it saw Nigeria Customs put in a composed performance, to defeat MFM of Lagos 55-46.

The Customs ladies had 3 players including Captain Josette Anaswem and Nkem Akarive who contributing 14 points each, in double digits; while Regina Donanu with 14 dunks, was the only MFM player in double digits.

Following the conclusion of the preliminary phase of the competition on Tuesday and the elimination of eight teams, the tournament saw the exit of four more teams.

Classification matches for 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th teams, starting from 11am, at the Indoor Sports Hall, located in Package B of the MKO Abiola National Stadium, Abuja will precede the semi-final games.

Classification Matches
IGP Queens vs Air Warriors of Abuja – 11am.

MFM of Lagos vs Plateau Rocks of Jos – 1pm.

The final of the tournament which have received wide commendations by stakeholders will hold on Saturday, January 22, 2022.