Zenith Bank Women Basketball League Final Eight Play-Off begins today 

The Final 8 of the 2019 Zenith Bank Women Basketball League starts today at the Indoor Sports Hall of the National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos.

This is the fourth stage of the women’s basketball league, but this year, it comes with a new format introduced by the Musa Kida–led board of the Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF).

Four centres, Abuja, Zaria, Ibadan and Akure hosted the first two phases with 27 teams on parade, while Ibadan and Abuja hosted the third phase, which was the Atlantic and Savannah Conference centres.

Eight teams were in each of the conferences and the best four in each of the conferences made it to the final.

The defending champions, First Bank of Lagos, remain unbeaten in the current campaign from the Atlantic Conference and they led the four teams from Ibadan. Others are MFM, Dolphins and Asaba-based Delta Force.

In the Savannah Conference played in Abuja, Air Warriors stayed true to their name as they defeated all seven oppositions to qualify for the National Finals on a high while Customs finished second.

Zenith Bank sponsored league debutants, Blackgold Queens, and Plateau Rocks will also be in Lagos for the finals.

The Group Managing Director of Zenith Bank, Ebenezer Onyeagwu has congratulated all the qualifiers for the final phase.

Onyeagwu said: “All those in Lagos for the finals are winners because other who fell in earlier stages would have loved to be in the final.

“As sponsors in the past 15 years, we will continue to provide the enabling environment through the league to boost women’s basketball in the country.”

“We are happy that D’Tigress have won the Afrobasket back-to-back with some of those who featured in this competition and we expect more players to enter the national team through this league.”

The two finalists of the Final Eight will qualify for the 2019 FIBA Africa Zone Three Champions Cup qualifiers to be hosted in Cotonou, Benin Republic later this month.