By Daily Sports Nigeria on September 20, 2025

Dolphins Basketball Club of Lagos and fellow Atlantic Conference franchise First Bank will contest for the right to be called champions of the 2025 Zenith Bank Women’s Premier League playoffs, when the final goes down on Saturday (today) inside the Indoor Sports Hall of the National Stadium in Surulere, Lagos, PUNCH Sports Extra reports.

In Friday’s first semi-final fixture, Dolphins saw off the challenge of Abuja-based franchise, Royal Aces, 66-54 to book a place in the final. The coach Peter Akindele-led side, who first caused a major upset on day one when they defeated 2024 champions, MFM, are currently unbeaten in the playoffs, having also defeated Titans and Nigeria Customs.

Akindele attributed his team’s unbeaten run to the work put in over time in an exclusive chat with our correspondent.

“We have been together for the past four months, working together to get to this stage. We are really working hard every day, and training to put the team together. When we got to the Final Eight, we had to play with teams from the Savannah Conference. We learnt a lot of things from the different teams,” he said.

“We thank God we are already in the final. We will go back now and work together. The last time we played against First Bank in our conference game, they managed to beat us by one point. We are not scared of anybody.”

He added, “My girls are ready, and they are very young and they are mobile on the court. They really want to move, and they are ready because this is the first time the girls and I will be in the final. I think we need it more than First Bank because they have been winning for a long time.”

Meanwhile, First Bank narrowly edged two-time champions, MFM, 47-45 in the second semi-final clash to book the Dolphins clash. The Elephant Girls started off brightly in the opening quarter, but soon faded as MFM launched a comeback heading into halftime.

Upon the resumption of the third quarter, the lead changed hands several times, but coach Juliana Akhere’s lads put up a solid defensive display to see out a famous result, in what was an eagerly anticipated game.

Like Dolphins, First Bank are also unbeaten throughout the playoffs, having beaten the likes of Royal Aces, Air Warriors and Bayelsa Blue Whales on their way to the final.

Coach of MFM, Ochuko Owolabi, expressed her post-game thoughts after the tough defeat to PUNCH Sports Extra, saying, “I had great hopes, but as it is, we come out to fight again. We live to fight another day.”

Concerning her team’s chances in the third-place game, she said, “Of course, we will give our all, and so does the other team. But we can’t go home with empty hands. So we have to come out and play. It will be hard to motivate the players because they are already down. But still, that’s not an excuse. We got ourselves in this position, and we must get ourselves out of it, so we have to play and get the bronze medal.”

Source Punch Ng

Posted September 20, 2025

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