The 2025 CDS Basketball championship has ended on a glittering note after a dazzling, star-studded closing ceremony on Wednesday evening, featuring a plethora of former and current national and international basketball superstar athletes, and other special dignitaries gracing the occasion at the indoor sports hall, Package B of the Moshood Abiola national stadium, Abuja.
Team Plateau emerged champions in the male category after defeating M2 Academy 50-36 in a thrilling encounter, while Team Kaduna made light walk of Team Niger with a resounding 42-20 win to emerge champions in the women’s category, remaining unbeaten throughout the tournament.
Meanwhile, in the classification match, Team FCT overpowered their counterpart from Kaduna state with a relentless 70-53 points to finish third in the overall placement of the championship.
While entertaining questions from journalists, Chief of Defence Staff, General Christopher Musa (OFR), said he’s delighted with the outcome of the event and declared his commitment to improve the standard of the championship in subsequent editions.
“I’m delighted with what i have seen, and the competition improved from what we did last year, this year we decided to start with the age group, next year we will try to go higher so as to give opportunity to every age group to come and showcase their talents”
The general also asserted the importance of organizing clinics for coaches and referees which will help enhance their professional development as well as gaining fresh perspectives that’ll be impactful on their players before the next edition.
“What we have observed as veterans is that the nature of play is still not too good, which means, they have not been exposed enough in their trainings, so before the next competition we will look at the aspect of organizing clinics for coaches and referees, so we can prepare them for the next tournament, we want this to improve, hopefully the next one, we will organize a much bigger event for everybody to participate”
General Musa also hinted that the championship will not be restricted to the north central zone alone, but has assured that all the six geopolitical zones will also be captured in their scheme, with either Lagos or Ibadan targeted to possibly be the next host before the year runs out.
A dummy cheque of five hundred thousand naira were presented to the winners of both the male and the female category, while two hundred and fifty thousand naira went to the the runners-up as their price money for their performance and contributions.
The CDS Basketball championship had a total of 16 teams participated in this year’s edition of the competition, 10 male and 6 female teams.
The week-long program which started off on Saturday, June 14, climaxed on Wednesday, June 18, 2025.
