Fourth placed Pillars return from FIBA Africa Champions Cup
West African Basketball champions Kano Pillars yesterday returned from Cairo where they finished fourth at the FIBA Africa Champions Cup tournament.
According to the team’s media officer Idris Malikawa, Coach Sani Ahmed’s side were proud of their outing and are hoping their appearance at the tourney will propel them to greater things in the future.
The club’s forward Abubakar Usman was voted ‘Best Shooter’ at the Egypt held event after his impressive showing especially against GS Petroleum of Algeria in the quarter final.
The Kano based team on Friday ended their campaign without a medal as they lost the 3rd Place game to AS Sale 76 – 88.
The Nigerian flag bearers who lost in the semifinals against hosts, Al-Ahly, were keen to exit Cairo on a high but hard as they tired, they were unable to win the bronze medal contest against their Moroccan opponents.
The Nigerian champions lost all the four quarters as the Moroccans proved to a hard nut to crack.
Meanwhile, hosts Ahly of Egypt won the African title for the first time following a 68-66 victory over Recreativo do Libolo in a nailbiting final.
Although Ahly had the lead for most of the game, Libolo threatened to snatch a victory in the fourth quarter after going neck and neck with the Red Devils.
With Ahly leading 65-64 with nine seconds remaining, American Wayne Arnold hit two free throws to give his team a three-point advantage. At the other end, Libolo also followed with two free throws with little more than five seconds from time.
Before Friday’s triumph, two third-place finishes in 2004 and 2012 were previously the best results for Ahly in Africa’s premier club competition.
Ahly are the fourth Egyptian side to win the coveted trophy following Gezira (four titles), Ittihad (one title) and Zamalek (one title).