Rivers Hoopers coach Ogoh Odaudu has opened up on the reasons behind the team’s disappointing defeat to Armée Patriotique Rwandaise in the quarter-finals of the Africa Basketball League.
The NBBF champions suffered a 104-73 loss to Armée Patriotique Rwandaise [APR] on Monday in Pretoria to crash out of the competition.
APR won the first quarter 24-11 and also the second quarter with a score of 33-21, having attempted 15 field goals and converting 93.3 per cent of them.
Rivers Hoopers failed to win a single quarter, going down 26-20 in the third quarter before finally ending the fourth quarter with a draw with a 21-21 scoreline.
The KingsMen had earlier lost their opening match against US Monastir of Tunisia 89-81 last week before another defeat condemned them to a quarter-final exit.
Odaudu confessed that the team had a bad day against Armée Patriotique Rwandaise on Monday, claiming that too many things went wrong.
He said, “What’s changed [is that] we are no longer playing in the semi-finals. We’ve been knocked out, but on a general note, I think we had a really bad day today.
“We didn’t play as well as we thought we could play, and it happens in basketball. We are not upset. We may be disappointed, but we are holding our heads high. Too many things went wrong. The killer for us [at] the start was the 52 points made in the paint.
“We didn’t defend the way we should have. So, nothing has changed; we are still the Rivers Hoopers. We will still go back there [BAL], and we will still be back.”
Odaudu extended his appreciation to the Rivers State Government for supporting the team while calling for regular domestic competitions.
He concluded, “One major problem that we are facing, too, [is that] we played against US Monastir, who just came off their championship game – they lost – but they have been playing for a long time.
“We played today against APR, who are still in the thick of their league… Rivers Hoopers have not played competitively since Morocco. It’s one of the problems that we have, too. We hope the Nigeria [Basketball] Federation is going to change all this [domestic league format], and then we are going to arrive at the BAL playing, not just coming to try to get into game shape while we are at the tournament.”
Rivers Hoopers finished third at the last edition of the competition in 2024.
