LAGOS – Coach Dominic Dike of the Police Batons Basketball Club of Lagos on Saturday expressed disappointment over his team’s loss to Dodan Warriors of Lagos.
Dike told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that his boys lost the game against Dodan Warriors by 79-47 due to lack of discipline in their approaches.
He said that the players performed woefully and did not turn up to play hard against a very skilful Warriors team, hoping that the team would escape relegation.
Batons, currently with eight losses out of 10 matches played and with four games to round off the 2015 DStv Basketball season, are placed at the bottom of the Atlantic Conference log.
Dike said: ”we did not turn up well for the game, my players gave too many silly turnovers that the Warriors capitalised on, to their advantage.
”Overall, we lost the game at the third quarter due to lack of discipline and my players’ refusal to take to simple instructions.
“There was no properly coordinated team effort, it was an individual affair.
”We have a lot in our hands to escape relegation, we have been in this situation before and we are confident of escaping at the end,” Dike said.
Batons had recorded 14-18 and 12-16 in the first two quarters of the game, but lost their posture at the turn of the second half.
Warriors capitalised on their weaknesses to record 21-12, 24-9 in the third and fourth quarters.
Warriors’ offensive play led by Benjamin Ikechkwu, Chigozie Udeh, John Owhe and Romaric Quienum helped them to take the game beyond Batons reach, recording 17, 10, 10, 10 points respectively in the game.
Coach Christopher Nomigo of the Warriors team, on his part, said that his players were focused on beating the best team in the conference.
”We did well in the game; we had a lot of runs in the third and fourth Ikechkwu that gave us the clear lead.
”My players deserve a lot of credit, especially Benjamin Ikechukwu, who played a fantastic role in the offence and his inputs made a lot difference in the game,” Nomigo said.
Ikechukwu told NAN that the game pattern they employed was superior to that of the Batons.
”It was a mind game; we were better coordinated than them and were able to run and play our kind of basketball.
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”Our strategy worked out for us early enough in the game, and we just worked harder to take the game beyond Batons’ reach,” Ikechukwu said. (NAN)
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