3rd December, 2012
A Yobe State male basketball player, Umaru Mohammed, has blamed his side’s loss to their Rivers State counterparts in the male basketball event of the Eko 2012 on lack of confidence on the part of his team-mates.
Team Yobe, this afternoon were trashed by Team Rivers 47-32 in the Group B male basketball game which was decided at Mobolaji Johnson Sports Centre, Rowe Park, Yaba.
In a chat with P.M.News, Mohammed said that it was lack of confidence on the part of his team-mates in the first quarter of the game that nailed their coffin in the match.
“I think we should have won the match if we had exercised courage in the first quarter of the game like we did in the rest of the game. We played as if we did not believe in our selves in the first quarter of the game which made us to lose the match,” said Mohammed.
“Our showing in the first quarter of the game was so poor and it was enough to decide the outcome of the game. Though we gave a good account of ourselves in the rest of the game but there was no way we could make up for our poor performance in the first quarter.”
However, Mohammed said that Team Yobe can still go all out to win the gold medal that is at stake in the event.
“I still have the belief that we can still win a gold medal in this event despite our loss to Team Rivers. We have seen our shortcomings and we will go back to the drawing board to address them so that we don’t do the mistake again,” Mohammed said.
—BIMBO AJAYI