Olisemeka fancies Rivers Hoopers’ chances at BAL
Rivers Hoopers’ Centre Peter Olisemeka believes determination and consistency will help his side go far at the 2024 Basketball Africa League (BAL).
The 32-year-old Nigerian-born Centre who recently joined the KingsMen ahead of the Sahara Conference phase of the BAL 2024, linked up with the rest of the squad during the team’s training camp in Lagos where they defeated Hoops & Read 92-72 in their final warm-up game before leaving for Dakar, Senegal, venue of the Sahara Conference.
Olisemeka, who was part of the action, expressed his zeal to get up to speed with the rest of his teammates.
“It’s been okay. It’s been good. I came late to the team, so I’ve been trying to get a good rhythm, and get a good feeling, and get off to work as quickly as possible.” said Olisemeka.
The 6-foot-9 Centre who recently played for RM Valcea in România, said he was looking forward to representing Rivers Hoopers and by extension, Nigeria, at BAL 2024.
“I’ve heard about it, I’ve had invitations to come for a few years now. But I was like, okay, this year I’ll definitely come and try [to] support Nigeria [and] the Rivers Hoopers team. That was my main target. So I’m looking forward to it for sure,” he stated.
Peter, who was voted the Eurobasket All-Bulgarian League Defensive Player of the Year in 2019, while playing for Akademik Plovdiv, hopes to help the team with his energy and experience.
“Personally, I fight for the game because I play really physical basketball. Hopefully I could bring that, the speed, energy, and everything to the team, and also the experience, because I’ve been playing basketball for a very long time now,” he continued.
Olisemeka was part of the ZZ Leiden team from the Netherlands, who won the BNXT League championship title in 2022, which was the inaugural season of the Dutch-Belgian basketball competition.
Looking ahead to Rivers Hoopers’ first involvement in the Sahara Conference of the BAL 2024, Olisemeka admitted that while expectations remain high, the KingsMen will try to go as far as possible, with their first target being to make it to the BAL Playoffs in Kigali, Rwanda.
He also stated that, with hard work and consistency, the Rivers Hoopers could go very far.
“We’re trying to push; we’re trying to go as far as possible and play the best basketball we can. It’s a new team with a combination of new players, so we’re going to try to go very far. Expectations are high, but we still have a lot of work to do. We’re definitely pushing to [reach] the next round; that’s the very first thing. But how far? If we play hard, stay consistent, and help each other out, I think we could go very far,” he concluded.
Rivers Hoopers will tip off their 2024 BAL season on 4th May, 2024, when they face the home team and last season’s runners-up, AS Douanes.
