Rivers Hoopers returned to winning form in emphatic fashion, overpowering Comets BC 92-61 to reach four victories from their five matches in Phase One of the 2026 Nigeria Premier Basketball League (NPBL).<\/p>\n
The KingsMen had previously suffered a narrow, five-point loss to Hoops & Read after surrendering a 14-point advantage on Day Four, but they responded with a steadier display on the back of sharp shooting to collect a second straight win over Comets with a margin of 30-plus points.<\/p>\n
Chinedu Nwaogu topped the scoring charts with 20 points and five rebounds, also draining 3 of 6 attempts from beyond the arc. Abel Offia added 19 points and five rebounds, going 5 of 8 from three-point range as Hoopers collectively finished with 13 successful triples.<\/p>\n
Anaiye Johnson just missed a double-double, finishing with 11 points and nine assists, while Duro-Ladipo Olatoye contributed 12 points in an improved outing that pleased interim head coach Ronald Alalibo.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe players stepped up,\u201d Alalibo said. \u201cWe went back and looked into the things that we didn\u2019t do properly in our previous game. Made some corrections to the errors and came back strong. We tried to see how we could limit our errors to the barest minimum, and that\u2019s what we did.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hoopers\u2019 turnaround was visible from the outset, leading 26-19 after the opening quarter before pushing the advantage to 53-32 at halftime. The gap widened further to 72-47 at the end of the third period, and the KingsMen then closed out the contest with a 31-point win.<\/p>\n
John Idoga, who came off the bench to score eight points, pointed to the team\u2019s shared responsibility in fixing the issues from the previous day.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday we stepped up our defense. We identified our mistakes from yesterday, and we were able to deal with them today. Tomorrow we\u2019ll come out here, play as well as we know we can, and hopefully get the win,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Despite the comfortable result, the victory was not without disruption, with KingsMen captain Victor Koko sidelined through injury just 27 seconds into the game. Alalibo said the squad\u2019s depth helped them absorb the early setback.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re built in a way that everyone is ready to fill in any empty space. If there\u2019s a shortage in our playing personnel, we have to step up our game, and that\u2019s what we did,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Rivers Hoopers will now take on Raptors BC in their last Atlantic Conference Group A match. After beating Raptors 75-59 on Day Three, Alalibo stressed the need to maintain the same level of intensity for Friday\u2019s matchup.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll approach the game with the same mentality. Although we won today, there are a few things we still need to correct. So we keep working,\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rivers Hoopers returned to winning form in emphatic fashion, overpowering Comets BC 92-61 to reach four victories from their five matches in Phase One of the 2026 Nigeria Premier Basketball League (NPBL). The KingsMen had previously suffered a narrow, five-point loss to Hoops & Read after surrendering a 14-point advantage on Day Four, but they […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":825,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_yoast_wpseo_title":"Rivers Hoopers Dominate Comets 92-61 in NPBL Phase One","_yoast_wpseo_metadesc":"Rivers Hoopers crushed Comets 92-61 in NPBL Phase One, firing on all cylinders to secure four wins in five and build momentum for ","mma_seo_breadcrumb_text":"","mma_seo_breadcrumb_url":"","mma_seo_breadcrumb_hide_ui":"","mma_seo_breadcrumb_labels":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-sports"],"yoast_head":"\n