Louis Edet Invitation Basketball Competition Dunks off Today

Louis Edet Invitation Basketball Competition Dunks off Today 

Eight elite basketball teams from across the states of Nigeria, have converged on Lagos to compete for honours in a championship, put together by the Louis Edem Ekpenyong foundation.

The tournament which is being hosted by a two-time Nigerian Premier Basketball league Most Valuable Player, is scheduled to hold between February 7 and 11, 2023; with all matches to be played at the National Stadium, in Surulere, Lagos.

The basketball tourney, according to Ekpenyong, is one of the ways, he has chosen to honour his late father, who died during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

The eight Premier league teams from across Nigeria have been carefully selected; and they will vie for the grand prize of N2 million with the runners-up going home with N1 million; whilst the tournament’s MVP - an award named after his father, Engineer Francis Ekpenyong, will pocket N100,000 cash.

At the inauguration of the competition; Ekpenyong, an Information Technology Engineer in Maryland, United States, praised his late father for supporting his basketball career.

“He made me who I am today. I don’t pay tithes to any church, so, this is my tithe. I am giving back to the basketball community, which I love and care about so much. I want to do this in honor of my father, because he was everything to me,” he said.

Ekpenyong, a one-time West African University League MVP, and two-time Nigeria Basketball League MVP, started his professional career in 1998, when he debuted for Kada Stars of Kaduna in the then 7up Premier League.

He later played for Jigawa Rocks in 2000, Yelwa Hawks of Bauchi between 2001 and 2003, before featuring for Union Bank Basketball Club of Lagos between 2004 and 2006; and later jetted out of Nigeria to play international basketball.