Basketball fans in Lagos on Monday praised Nigeria’s Basketball Captain, Adaora Elonu, for bagging the “Most Valuable Player (MVP) award of the FIBA Women’s Afro-basket championship.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Elonu, who debuted in the competition in 2015 in Cameroon, has been the team’s captain since 2017 edition and ever since has been returning home with the championship trophy.
NAN reports that Elonu’s leadership qualities cannot go unnoticed as she effortlessly stir the ship of the women’s basketball team in a masterly way.
In the just concluded edition, the Nigerian senior women national team, D’Tigress, claimed their third straight continental title at the expense of hard fighting Mali by 70-59.
“We are very proud of Elonu, she led the team to three victorious outings and she always give her best to push the team when the chips are down,“ says Dele Orebiyi, a basketball fan.
“This is the best time in basketball for our women, the leadership qualities of Elonu cannot go on unnoticed as she has showed good level-headedness in all the competitions.
“Indeed, the quality squad also works hard, indeed this is a great team coming from Nigeria,’ Orebiyi said.
According Coach Ayodele Oluseyi of Lagos Islanders, Elonu’s is definitely a patriot, he said, pointing out that she has used her positive character to enhance the team’s results.
“The team is enjoying the finest moment of its life and I congratulate the captain and the entire team for making us proud.
“They have proved their superiority in the Afrobasket championships and we hope they continue in this fine form,”Oluseyi said.
Akeem Bello, another D’Tigress fan, expressed happiness over the heroic performance of the Elonu-led team, saying it had earned the respect of all other teams on the continent.
“This is indeed a great achievement coming from our D`Tigress, they have been able to put aside the setback of the Olympics in Japan and rose to the occasion in Cameroon.
“Indeed, they deserve national honours and national monument be named after them,” he said.
The championships, which took place at the Palais Polyvalent des Sports Yaounde, Cameroon on Sunday night, saw a highly competitive game which was largely dominated by D’Tigress.
Joining Elonu in the All-Stars team were Nigeria point guard and 2019 MVP, Ezinne Kalu, Senegal’s Yacine Diop, Cameroon youthful forward Marina Paule Ewodo and Mali massive centre, Mariam Coulibaly.
In the other awards of the night, Mozambican forward Tamara Seda was the best rebounder of FIBA Women’s AfroBasket 2021 with a total of 52 rebounds.
Egypt swingman Nadine Mohammed won the best scorer award with 101 points while Cote D’Ivoire guard Salimata Berte won the best three-pointer award with 16 made shot from behind the arch.
Cape Verde was a warded the fair play award of the championship.
Nacissela Mauricio of Angola and Aisha Mohammed of Nigeria were honoured by FIBA Africa Region for their dedication to the sport and their national teams. (NAN)
