Rivers Hoopers bounced back to winning ways with a resounding 92-61 victory over Comets BC on day five of the ongoing 2026 Nigeria Premier Basketball League (NPBL) Phase one on Thursday.
The KingsMen, who blew a 14-point lead when they lost by five points to Hoops & Read on day four, put up a more composed performance aided by clinical shooting as they recorded a fourth win from five games and a second 30+ point victory over Comets.
Chinedu Nwaogu led all scorers with 20 points, 5 rebounds and 3/6 three points made, and Abel Offia contributed 19 points, 5 rebounds and 5/8 three points made as Hoopers downed 13 shots from deep.
Anaiye Johnson, who controlled the floor, was one assist short of a double-double as he grabbed 11 points, and Duro-Ladipo Olatoye added 12 points in an improved performance which delighted interim head coach Ronald Alalibo.
“The players stepped up,” he admitted. “We went back and looked into the things that we didn’t 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’s what we did.”
The improvement was evident as the six-time Nigerian champions pushed a 7-point lead at the end of the first quarter (26-19) to 21 points by halftime (53-32). The advantage was stretched to 25 points at the end of the third quarter (72-47) before the KingsMen wrapped up a comprehensive 31-point blowout.
John Idoga, who scored 8 points from the bench, said the improved performance was down to the team working together to correct their mistakes.
“Today we stepped up our defense. We identified our mistakes from yesterday, and we’re able to deal with them today. Tomorrow we’ll come out here, play as well as we know we can, [and hopefully] get the win,” he explained.
The victory was, however, not without sacrifice, as the KingsMen had to navigate the difficulty of losing captain Victor Koko to injury 27 seconds into the game. Alalibo hailed the quality of his team and his players’ ability to step up in dealing with the absence of the veteran centre.
“We’re built in a way that everyone is ready to fill in any empty space. If there’s a shortage in our playing personnel, we have to step up our game, and that’s what we did,” he pointed out.
Up next for Rivers Hoopers will be a rematch against Raptors BC in their final Atlantic Conference Group A game.
Hoopers beat Raptors 75-59 on Day Three of the 2026 season, and according to Alalibo, they must maintain the same intensity during Friday’s contest.
“We’ll 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.”
