LAGOS (FIBA Africa Champions Cup Women) - First Bank Basketball Club of Lagos claimed their eighth Zenith Bank Women Basketball League after beating  First Deepwater 84-53 on July 29.

The Elephant girls have now their eyes set on this year's FIBA Africa Champions Cup Women (ACCW) which will take place in November.

First Bank coach Peter Ahmedu - who has been appointed an assistant coach for the Nigeria women's team - told FIBA.basketball that his dream of retaining the local title had been realized and congratulated his girls for a job well done.

"We knew what our target was and didn’t at any point in time joked with our games because in basketball you cannot underrate any team. We kept our focus and we thank God we won," Ahmedu said.

He insisted that he is already looking ahead to the ACCW 2017 Zone 3 qualifiers where his team has reigned supreme in the last three years.

"This is not the end of the story for us but just the beginning because we would still go for the zonal qualifier as well as the Final Round. Last year we claimed a Third-Place finish in Maputo, Mozambique, but I think we can achieve more”, the play caller explained.

Magdalene Ukato who led the way for First Bank with a team-best 20 points, was named the Most Valuable Player of the 2017 Nigeria League.

Although Kasham Emmanuel poured in a game-high 23 points, that was not enough to save First Deepwater.

In the Third-Place game, former Nigeria champions Dolphins gave up a 17-point lead to fall 65-63 to IGP Queens. The game was again lively like their preliminary rounds encounter which Dolphins won by just a point.

FIBA