Rivers Hoopers of Port Harcourt’s interim head coach, Ronald Alalibo has attributed his side’s victory over Comets in the Nigeria Premier Basketball League (NPBL) to adjustments he and his crew members made from their previous game.
Sports247 reports that Alalibo was beaming with delight, after The Kings Men turned a 43-33 first-half lead into a 30-point blowout by choking Comets’ offense in the second half, while restricting them to just 17 points over the final two quarters.
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He cited his team’s defensive prowess, as The Hoopers capitalised heavily on their opponents’ sloppiness, converting 27 forced turnovers into 32 points to maintain their perfect start in the Atlantic Conference group phase.
Duro-Ladipo Olatoye was one of The Garden City side’s brightest sparks off the bench, scoring eight points with 100% shooting from within the arc, following which his coach praised the team’s ability to build on their early momentum.
Alalibo heavily utilised his squad depth during the encounter, as every player on the matchday roster saw at least 16 minutes of floor time, with the bench contributing 37 points (46.25% of the total) in a wholesome team performance.
They were also efficient from the charity stripe, converting 76.5% of their free throws (13/17), much to the delight of their interim coach, and the former player-turned-coach said he was most impressed with his side’s defensive output.
Alalibo retorted gleefully, “Like I said after our previous game, we are taking it one step at a time. We saw the errors we made in the previous game, so we took our time to make corrections and we applied them in the game.
“Defence, they say, wins championships. If you’re not scoring, you should at least be able to stop your opponents from scoring against you. We had some defensive lapses; we made some adjustments, and everybody came out to play.”
