Benue Schools Win Milo Basketball Championship.

The 16th edition of the Nestle Milo Secondary School Basketball Championship ended on Saturday with two schools from Benue State – Jesus College, Oturkpo, and Government Secondary School, Gboko – winning the trophies for the boys and girls categories respectively.

In keenly contested final matches played on Saturday at the Sports Hall of National Stadium, Lagos, the girls from GSS, Gboko, defeated their counterparts from the CAC Grammar School, Akure, Ondo State 25-35. Jesus College boys were the better side in their match against Henson Demonstration Groups of Schools, Benin, Edo State, which ended 59-72.

The male category champions trailed their opponents 23-14 at the end of the first quarter but overtook them in the second quarter 31-35. The third quarter ended 45-54.

Yejide Girls Grammar School, Ibadan, Oyo State, won the girls’ third place match against St Jude Girls Secondary School, Amarata, Bayelsa State 12-30, while Gen. Murtala Muhammed College, Yola Adamawa State, defeated St. Augustine’s Seminary, Ezzamgbo, Ebonyi State 42-27 for the third place match for the boys.

The coach of the Jesus College team, Ajadi Isiaka, said two schools from Benue State winning the championships was a testimony of the development of basketball in the state.

Isiaka said, “Every one of my players has the potential to succeed in basketball. If they continue to train and develop, they can represent Nigeria in world championships. For now, they have one more Milo championship; that is next year, after which we will see how we can continue to train them.”

The captain of the Jesus College team, Onoja Emmanuel, attributed their victory to hard work, teamwork, and discipline.

He said, “We are very happy that we won. What gave us the victory were hard work, teamwork, and the discipline. We hope to continue to train and become better. For me I want to play basketball at the senior level and to play for Nigeria.”

After the competition, 12 players from were chosen from the teams for the Top 50 camp which began at the same venue on Sunday.

In his remark, the Managing Director, Nestle Nigeria, Dharnesh Gordhon, said the company will remain committed to the development of basketball in Nigeria.

“We will continue to partner with the Nigerian Basketball Federation, the National Schools Sports Federation, the National Collegiate Sports Federation and other stakeholders to improve the quality of the game, raise the profile of basketball and instill in our youths, lifelong skills and values,” he said.

The Director, Grassroots Sports Development at National Sports Commission, Alhassan Yakmut, who handed the trophy to the winners, said they hope to recruit some of the students for the national team.

“We have established a high-performance centre that will pull talents from events like this for the senior level competitions,” he said.