By Stephen Adeleye.
Crowther Memorial College, Lokoja, and Sacred Hearts Marist College, Ejule, on Friday emerged male and female winners of State preliminaries of the 21st Edition of the Nestlé Milo Basketball Secondary Schools Competition in Kogi.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that both final matches were played at the Basketball Court of the Crowther Memorial College, Lokoja.
NAN reports that Crowther Memorial College beat ASCO 2, Ajaokuta 40 – 30 points, while Sacred Hearts Marist College defeated their counterparts Overcomers Technical Sec. Sch., Ajaokuta, 10-0 to emerge winners in the finals.
Mrs Rosemary Osikoya, the Kogi State Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology commended the teams for their brilliant performance.
Represented by the Special Adviser to the Governor on Education, Science and Technology, Mr Moses Abara, She charged the students to step up their game.
Especially as they prepare to represent the state at the national zonal competition level in Minna, Niger State.
“I can see bundle of talented players here today both within the winning and losing teams, we are very impressed with their excellent performance,” the commissioner said.
Mr Gwatana Silver, Sports Desk Officer of the Ministry, said the winners in the male and female categories would proceed to Minna, to compete with other States from the North Central Zone, scheduled to hold on May 10 to 16.
“This is to determine the Zonal champion who would now meet other zonal champions from other zones to compete for the national finals.
“The competition was keenly contested and we have seen that most of these students, if they cannot excel in academics, they can excel in other areas such as sports.
“A lot of talents were discovered here today; I could not imagine that a student can dunk successfully till today.
“We are happy and thereby encouraging schools to put in more efforts because this championship holds every year,” Silva said.
Mr Sule Mohammed, Technical Commissioner, Basketball Federation, urged the players to keep training in order to perform well at the zonal and national levels.
Mrs Felicia Okeji, Director Education Second Services, MoEST, said she was very impressed with performance of the players, saying it was a very keen and interesting from the preliminaries competition.
She thanked the commissioner for supporting them which had ensured the success of the competition.
The Team Captain of the Memorial Crowther College, John Godwin, expressed his happiness for emerging winner and the opportunity for his team to represent state.
Stephanie Okeke, Team Captain, Sacred Hearts Marist College, said: “Initially we were discouraged when we saw our opponents, but we encouraged ourselves to give our best and we thank God that we won.”
