LOME (FIBA Africa Champions Cup 2016) - Kano Pillars, the reigning champions of the FIBA Africa Champions Cup (ACC) Zone 3, and ASPAC of Benin were off to a winning start on Sunday in  Lome, Togo.

While Pillars beat Beninese side Elan Sportif de Porto Novo 90-75, ASPAC edged out Nigerian Customs 70-51.

The six-team qualifier will see the top two teams advance to the ACC Final Phase to be held in Cairo, Egypt, from 8-17 December.

Despite being bigger and better, Kano Pillars were but bring their international experience to beat a small but quicker opposition. with their captain Usman Abubakar leading the floor with 22 points making three point shots at will.

Yahaya Abdul added 14 points, while Elan Sportif’s trio of Tossou Vivien finished with 19 points, Joel Gnimassou added 18 points and Akpachi Romario came up with 16.

Despite the loss, Aurelius Kouko, the head coach of Elan Sportif remained optimistic of his players' performances, although he lamented the team's inexperience.

“My team is appearing in a tournament like this for the first time after a long while. They are very young players who are ready to learn. We look forward to doing better in our subsequent games.”

Meanwhile, Sani Ahmed, head coach of Kano Pillars, admitted that the game was a difficult one for them even though they win by 15 points.

The other Nigerian team, Customs were however not as lucky in their first game as ASPAC of Benin made them look ordinary on the court and secured their first win of the qualifiers.

Despite the fact that Nigeria Customs - statistically - outrebounded their opponents 36-34, shot better from mid-range, (20/41 (49%) compared to ASPAC’s 14/32 (44%), they could not capitalise from those figures.

ASPAC’s Romaric Quenum had 20 points and 5 rebounds, and had to leave the court five minutes before the final buzzer due to injury.

His teammate Enock Gandjeto scored 15 points while Nigeria Customs Chibuzo Njoku had team-highs 16 points and collected 9 rebounds.

Customs coach, Scott Nnaji blamed his team’s loss on his inability to use two of his key players, a situation that affected his rotation and the game plan.

“I lost two key players to non-clearance and it affected my game plan.”

FIBA