By Daily Sports Nigeria on April 12, 2025

Nigerian champions Rivers Hoopers have booked their place in the 2025 Basketball Africa League playoffs with two games to spare in the Kalahari Conference in Rabat, Morocco, as their head coach Ogoh Odaudu is setting his sights on a bigger prize in season 5, PUNCH Sports Extra reports.

The playoffs will be held from June 6 to 14 in Pretoria, South Africa.

Rivers Hoopers defeated hosts FUS Rabat 79-71 on Thursday night to move to a 3-1 mark on the Kalahari Conference table, meaning they are bound to finish in the top two automatic spots.

With two games left to play, the KingsMen are second on the table behind Al-Ittihad of Egypt (4-0). While FUS Rabat sit third with a 1-3 record and Stade Malien on a 0-4 mark.

The KingsMen will battle the Egyptian champions for the first place while FUS and Stade Malien will slug it out for the third spot.

Hoopers head coach Ogoh Odaudu is excited to have qualified for the 2025 BAL Playoffs with two more games to go, adding that their focus is now to do better than their third-place finish from last year.

“It feels really good to qualify for the finals again. It is the highest basketball stage in Africa, and everybody in Africa wants to be there. I am really, really happy that we are there now. We hope to take some time off to celebrate.

“Right from the get-go, our target was to make the playoffs. Now that we have made the playoffs, we are going to get greedy.

“We came in third last year. We are hoping that we are going to go a step further. Everybody wants that for us; they have pushed us, and we want to go a step further than what we did last year.

Rivers Hoopers will next play Egyptian champions Al-Ittihad on Saturday before rounding off their campaign against Stade Malien.

The Nigerian champions are making their third appearance at the 2025 Basketball Africa League.

They featured in the inaugural season held in 2021 and last season’s edition, where they finished third to set a Nigerian record.

Source Punch Ng

Posted April 12, 2025

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