Hoopers eye Pillars and Warriors
by George Akpayen 24 July 2012, 14:44
Royal Hoopers' power forward, Kingsley Aguara, has identified Dodan Warriors and Kano Pillars as teams his club are wary of in their DStv Premier Basketball League title defence.
Aguara believes that his title-defending team needs to be cautious with Dodan Warriors and Kano Pillars.
But the Hoopers will face Kano Pillars in the playoff as they are drawn in the same group.
Both teams finished the regular season unbeaten. Warriors emerged winners of the Atlantic Conference while Pillars won the Savannah Conference.
The Hoopers 6' 8'' small forward also acknowledged that there are no minnows in the ongoing DStv PBL Final 8 playoff.
The ex-Union Bank man pointed out that Royal Hoopers are in Lagos to defend their title.
Royal Hoopers started off their title defence with a 80-51 points victory over Niger Potters on Day 1 of the playoff at the Indoor Sports Hall of the National Stadium in Lagos on Monday.
"Yes our first aim is to defend our title. No doubt we didn't do well in the regular season but the regular season and the playoff is a different ball game.
"It's good that we started with a win in the playoff. Niger Potters didn't make it any easy for us. They led in the first quarter but we had to dig deep to overturn the game on them. That shows the playoff isn't always easy because it's a different ball game from the regular season like I said.
"Our focus is now on our next game and we just want to win it to make our chance of reaching the semifinals very bright," said Aguara.
Royal Hoopers will play against Police Baton, which lost on the opening day of the playoff to Kano Pillars by 52-67 points, in their next game.
The game will tip off from 6pm local time (7pm CAT) on Tuesday.
