But the big question is: Who ended up beating the drop on the final day?
It was another freaky fabulous Friday on one of the most memorable days in the history of basketball in Nigeria. It was the 11th of June, 2014, all around the Nigeria Premier Basketball League as we looked forward to a dramatic final day of the season.
Final 8 for the National Playoffs Decided
Starting with the Atlantic Conference, Dodan Warriors kept their slim title hopes alive, beating relegation strugglers, Police Batons, 83-64 with All-Star shooting guard and 2 time MVP, Azuoma Dike scoring 23 points with 4 rebounds.
Beninese, Romaric Quenum also had a good game for the winners scoring 15 points, as Police shooting guard Kelvin Dandinson continued with his 3 points heroics (scoring 23 points) which might not have been enough to save them from relegation on the final day when Oluyole warriors came to Lagos to seek a win.
In the other game played in the commercial city, Lagos Islanders got sweet revenge, a 67–61 victory in a top-of-the-table clash against leaders, Union Bank. With injured skipper, Seun Akinwale still missing for the Islanders, Union Bank welcomed back their most influential player, Williams Ndoumbe from a two-game suspension but this didn't stop them from going down as he shockingly, could only add 2 points to his tally.
For the Islanders who missed too many free throws, they had their ever-reliable double-double hero, Chiwendu Nwaigbo to thank. The all-star point guard who came in from Germany this season got 18 points, 12 rebounds, and 8 assists to his name, almost doing a triple-double in that one. Seyi Ayodele, the man who always had his two little daughters and his wife at the games to cheer him up had a good game, scoring 13 points, 3 rebounds, and 3 assists.
Moving outside Lagos, Oluyole Warriors got sweet revenge over Scott Nnaji's Nigeria Customs, 93-73 at the almost invincible Adamasingba stadium.
With this important victory coach Bayo's side, it gave a feel that they had sealed the final playoff spot, which if they had lost, would have kept the Customs level on points with them for a final day decider.
The Struggle for a Century Points in a Single Game
Before I move on to the final game, let me reveal to you that we had five Lagos-based teams out of eight in the Atlantic Conference and none of them had scored a century of points in a single game all season.
More surprisingly, until Royal Hoppers’ 100-67 blowout victory over Kwara Falcons, the only team that had done a century or more points in a single game was Oluyole Warriors - their 102-68 blowout win over Police Batons in week one of the 2013/2014 season.
The Relegation Battle: What it Meant to Police Batons
It looked almost done and dusted for the playoff spot, but there was everything to fight for to escape relegation.
Police Batons were to play host to Oluyole warriors, while fellow strugglers, Royal Hoopers were to host Dodan Warriors in a must-win game. With funny rumours spreading across the league that the Police team will be sent back to the office if they are relegated, the likes of point guard, Damilola Savadogo and two others who were the only non-officers in the team would have wanted to give it their best shot or risked an exit.
Now, let's see how it went down, up north in the Savannah Conference. Newly promoted Gombe Bulls who were already through to the playoffs gave relegation-threatened Niger Potters a final day lifeline, loosing 42-37 in one of the lowest-scoring games of the season, if not in the history of the league.
With that, we had three teams to slog it out on the final day with the top four already secured after Plateau Peaks defeated fellow contender Nigeria Immigration 73-49, thereby leaving them to join the Potters and Kada stars in the relegation waters.
The Kaduna side lost scandalously at home to Kano pillars 53-91 and needed to do a short travel within the state to defeat Immigrations at home to be sure of safety.
For the second-best side so far in the league this season, no thanks to Kano Pillars' dominance, Mark Mentors destroyed every Net that was set by the team from Bauchi in a blowout 89-63 win to keep up their momentum for the national 8 playoff.
Truly it is beautiful to still be doing this after almost eleven years from this day. Now, I look to see you on the other side. Join me on Monday, 7PM on the only exclusive basketball show on radio, Courtside, with Chuma Nnoli. And don’t forget to watch this space for more.
