Rivers Hoopers maintain winning run in Nigerian basketball league
Rivers Hoopers continued their impressive start to the 2026 Nigeria Premier Basketball League (NPBL) Phase I with a dominant 75-59 victory over Raptors BC on Tuesday.
The Kingsmen produced a stunning performance to brush aside their Atlantic Conference Group A rivals with captain Victor Koko leading the charge with 16 points.
John Idoga recorded 13 points, 6 assists, and 5 steals, while Victor Sunday added 11 — making it three consecutive games in which at least three KingsMen players have reached double figures.
Rivers Hoopers emerged victorious in the first quarter 22-10 before Raptors BC won the second period 19-17 to trim the deficit to 39-29 at halftime.
Hoopers extended their lead to 21 points midway through the third quarter before Raptors mounted a 16-10 run in the final five minutes to set up a tense fourth quarter.
The KingsMen held on to win the fourth quarter 16-12 to earn their third consecutive victory in the league.
Five bench players made meaningful contributions as the second unit accounted for 42 points — a remarkable 56% of the team’s total.
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Eric Okechukwu, solid throughout with 8 rebounds off the bench, credited the turnaround to collective problem-solving.
“We had several discussions during our timeouts. We had to come together to figure out the loopholes and what we were not doing right. We figured it out and decided to distribute the ball more, not play individually, and then we were able to utilise our options to our advantage.”
Rivers Hoopers head coach Ronald Alalibo admitted that the team’s performance was not impressive but he was excited that they won.
He said: “Our performance was below standard today. Inasmuch as we won, there were certain things we didn’t do properly. We committed some unforced errors, and that was down to our attitude towards the game.
“We just have to up our first approach,” he said. “It’s quite difficult playing against the same team twice because they would approach the game with a different mind-set, having studied your team from the first game. We are also aware of this and are going to find ways to make improvements to our performance from our last game against them.”
The Hoopers have played in the Premier League since its inception and won the national championship six times, with titles in 2011, 2012, 2019, 2021, 2023 and 2024.
Recall that Lagos Legends defeated Rivers Hoopers 74–72 to win the NBPL title last year.
