Photos: Ben Bruce, Aliko Danogte, Jay Jay Okocha, others attend ABL tip off

The African Basketball League has officially tipped off on Saturday March 5th 2016 at the Landmark Event Centre with the Dakar Rapids of Senegal making history by winning the first game in the season. Vector, CDQ and a host of other entertainers bounced around a giant stage and entertained fun lovers who came in their hundreds to support the new big thing in Nigeria, ABL.

In his opening speech, the CEO of ABL, Ugo Udezue welcomed the six participating teams; Lagos Islanders, Stallions and Lagos Warriors from Nigeria, Dakar Rapids from Senegal, Abidjan Ramblers from the Cote d’Ivoire and Izobe Basketball Club from Libreville.

The double header weekend was well attended by Senator Ben Murray Bruce, Jeffery Daniels, Jay Jay Okocha, Sasha , Sexy Steel ,Sound Sultan ,Matthew Ohio of Industry nite and VJ Adams.

Stallions’ player J. Felando made history by becoming the first player to score a point in the league. He made a 2pt field goal 23secs into the game. Felando ended up playing for 34mins with 29points and 11 rebounds. He ties the record of most points in a game with Dakar-Rapids’ Gavin Schuman Felando alongside his team mate and captain Akin Akuntunde had double doubles – 29pts,11reb and 17pts,18reb – respectively. Dakar Rapids had two players who made 20+ points – Schuman 29, Niang 26. Stallions had the most 3points as they made 8 out of 20 attempts.

The visiting team won with just one point (69-70) and became the first team to win a game in the league. In the second game played on Sunday, Afam Muojeke and Mark Hill combined for 51points to lead the Lagos Islanders past the visiting Abidjan Ramblers. It was an electrifying atmosphere at the Landmark Event Centre as the Lagos Islanders rallied in the fourth quarter to cut the lead and eventually win the game.

Lagos Islanders scored the first point and 2.16sec into the first quarter, Jacobs made a 2pts layup shot to tie the game 4-4. Afam Muojeke emerged leading scorer for Lagos Islanders with 28pts, 7 rebounds while Jourdain led for Abidjan Ramblers with 22pts, 8 rebounds.

The next game is between Lagos Warriors vs Libreville Izobe on Thursday 10 March at the Landmark Event Centre. Tip off time is 7pm. The ABL is proudly supported by TRACE, Union Bank, Wakanow, Cornerstone Insurance, Cruz Vodka, Lagos State Government, BEAT 99.9FM and ASKY Airline