By Solomon Nwoke
BASKETBALL competition in the ongoing 17th National Sports Festival gets to its quarter-final stage as Eight matches  will be on display today at the Adokie Amiesimaka Stadium in Port Harcourt.

The group phase of the competition took off last Thursday, and it was concluded on Saturday.

Enugu State which had defeated Niger52-50 and Sokoto 64-50 to top the men’s Group A will take on Ondo, runners-up from Group B after losing 37-54 to Rivers and a 43-26 win over Akwa Ibom.

Group B winners Rivers who beat Akwa Ibom 82-61 to eliminate them from the 13-team competition will meet Group A runners-up Niger who defeated Sokoto 58-37 on Friday.

Bayelsa won Group C with wins over Bauchi(61-46) and Benue(63-60) will today take on Lagos, runners-up from Group D that won 56-45 over Imo and a 60-63 loss to Kaduna.

Group C runners-up Benue who beat Bauchi 53-44 and lost to Bayelsa will face Group D winners Kaduna who had secured win over Imo (57-41) and Lagos (63-60).

Sokoto, Akwa Ibom and Bauchi had all failed to qualify for the next round from Groups A, B and C after two losses each.
Adamawawhich beat Imo 51-49 in a Group D match also failed to qualify after Kaduna and Lagos clinched the group’s two tickets.

In the women’s competition, the quarter-final line-up also had almost the same qualifiers as in the men’s competition.
Kaduna which walked over Adamawa on Saturday to top Group A will take on Benue, runners-up from Group B, while Group B winners Lagos who beat Zamfara45-16 will face Group A runners-up Niger.

In the other pairings, Akwa Ibom which topped Group C after a 45-41 win over hosts Rivers on Saturday will face Group D runners-up Delta. Group D winners Ondo, 61-17 conquerors of Enugu on Saturday to record the most massive win of the competition, will meet Group C runners-up Rivers.

Adamawa, Zamfara, Imo and Enugu had all failed to advance to the next round from the first round group phase.
The competition’s co-ordinator, Malam Mohammed Haladu, said all the matches were slated for the same day as against the earlier plan in order to complete the fixtures on time.

“We did plan to have the quarter-finals on Monday and Tuesday, but now it has to be Monday only so as to make use of that extra day we can get,” he said.

Haladu said the semi-finals would now hold on Tuesday, as against the earlier plan of Wednesday, while the final and third-place matches would hold on Wednesday.