The third edition of the Dreams Basketball tournament dunked off on Monday at the Obafemi Awolowo Stadium, Ibadan, with 10 clubs competing for honours in the male and female categories.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the participating teams comprises eight male and two female clubs.
The male clubs are: Hoop Dreams Nigeria, Showtyme of Ibadan, University of Ibadan, Liberty Spears Ibadan and Egbeda Local Government Basketball of Ibadan.
Others are D’warrior of Lagos, Vision Basketball of Abeokuta and Raptors Basketball Academy of Lagos.
The female teams are: Oluyole Babes of Ibadan and Amazon of Lagos.
Coach Dayo Emmanuel of Hoop Dreams said his team are in the tournament to retain the title won in the last edition.
Emmauel said, ”Every champion wants to remain a champion. No champion wants to go down. We’re here with the same mentality and spirit we came with last year.
”We are here to retain the title. We have put in so much effort into training prior to the competition.
”We’ve covered all the grounds needed for us to retain the title. The players are in good shape ; we’ve done our bit collectively.
”As a coach, I have done my part. It’s now left for the boys to prove themselves on the court,” he said.
NAN reports that the tournament is being sponsored by Tunji Soroye, a former national basketball player.
According to the organiser, the winner in the male category will get N600,000, while the second placed team will receive N400,000.
The champion in the female category will receive N300,000 while the second placed team will get N200,000.
In some of the matches played so far, Showtyme Hoopers won Hoop Dreams Nigeria 46-39.
Similarly, the University of Ibadan defeated Liberty Spears 59-4, while Raptors Basketball Academy of Lagos defeated Egbeda Local Government Basketball club 40-27.
