Pius Ayinor
Nigeria’s champions and representatives at the 2025 Basketball Africa League Rivers Hoopers were beaten 89-81 by US Monastir as they opened their playoffs campaign, reports Extrasportnigeria.wordpress.com. The game was a part of the Season 5 matches played in Pretoria, South Africa on Saturday.
From the tipoff US Monastir soon took a temporary lead at 6 over Rivers Hoopers 4 but within the minute the score soon changed to 9-6 for the Nigerian team. This was indeed looking like a sign of the direction the game would go but it was not. Monastir soon made it 21 Hoopers 20 and then Hoopers at 29-22 and then 33-28 as the match began to play at a clutch.
The teams went for break at 36-32 for Rivers Hoopers who finished last Season BAL 4 as the third best team on the continent. Raphiael Putney with 16 points as the only player on double-digit for Hoopers.
The game soon resumed and the Hoopers move up to an 8-point lead 50-42 but a couple of errors saw their most consistent opponents at BAL sweep to 72-64. From this point it became a journey of no return as the fourth quarter winded up to the buzzer.
Hoopers will play their next match against APR Rwanda on Monday. It is a quarter final pairing.
Extrasportnigeria 
Leave a comment