Dolphins beat Ghanaian champions in friendly

Dolphins beat Ghanaian champions in friendly

’Tana Aiyejina

Dolphins Basketball Club of Lagos on Tuesday defeated Ghanaian  champions Braves of CEPS 55-46 in a  friendly played at the ultra-modern indoor hall of the Dolphins sports centre in Lagos.

Braves, the basketball team of the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority, were also beaten by the 2015 Nigerian champions on Monday.

Dolphins went into the break leading 24-22 in a tough and entertaining duel and then held on to win the third quarter 35-32 before a late rush of points saw them overcome  the Ghanaians.

Despite the win, Dolphins coach, Ochuko Okworogun, said her team  didn’t play to expectations, adding that they would work on the lapses discovered in the game.

She said, “The Ghanaians were better today but we didn’t play to expectations. Sometimes you win but you know you should have done better, that’s what happened to us in both games. If we played against a team not as good as Nigerian clubs and we struggled, it means when we meet a  better Nigerian team, it will be difficult for us. Now we know what to work on. It gave us the opportunity to assess the new players, and we know where we have to work on.”

Anita Bonney, Braves captain, said they would have fared better but for the standard floor they played on for the first time. She lamented playing on concrete floors in Ghana had  hindered their development in the game.

“I think we play the same style. In terms of height, skills, shooting, we are almost alike but they (Dolphins) are used to the court while we train on bare ground in Ghana. We got tired easily here because it’s the first time we played on such  a court, which is also bigger compared to what we have in Ghana,” Bonney stated.

“When it rains, we don’t get access to the court because everywhere is flooded and training halted. If we have to train, we have to sweep off  water from the court; that’s our problem in Ghana.”

Ebenezer Frimpong, Director of Sports, Ghana Revenue Authority, Customs Division, hailed Dolphins Sports Foundation chairman, Wale Aboderin, for using sports to take young girls off the streets.

The leader of Braves’ delegation, said, “For an individual to set up a club and put up a facility (Dolphins gym) is not easy. He’s contributing to  society because the girls who are playing for the club may have ended up in different hands and perhaps cause harm to the society. I pray he keeps up the good job.

“We are impressed with Dolphins  and there are a lot of lessons to take back home.  We saw the dynamics of their play. In terms of facilities we have to go back home and see how we can improve ours because we mainly play outdoors. Playing indoors is a different ball game.”

Bonney said she was optimistic that with better facilities and support from the Ghana Basketball Association, they would fare better, after the lessons learnt from Dolphins.

She  added, “Ghana Basketball Association needs to organise frequent games like this for us. When it comes to selection of the teams, they have to get the very good players selected, trained, equipped and ready for the task because from what we’ve seen here, it’s not easy.

“We learnt that speed is important; we need to train very hard to get the maximum speed. We need to start training on grounds like this.”