IE, NPA Pythons For Basketball Champions Cup

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LBF MVP Mark Smith and teamate
Alpnonso Kuiah of NPA Pythons

By Julu M. Johnson, Jr.

The top two basketball teams of Liberia, Invincible Eleven (IE) and NPA Pythons are expected to compete in this year's African Champions Cup for Men.

IE surprisingly won the league title, while the NPA Pythons finished as runners-up at the end of the last season.

The two clubs will now have to defend themselves in the Group A preliminaries that would take place in Ivory Coast from September 30 to October 8, 2006 in Abidjan.

Both IE and NPA Pythons would face teams from The Gambia, Ghana, Libya, Somalia and Sierra Leone.

Two teams also in the zone, ABC of Ivory Coast and Dodan Warriors of Nigeria have automatically qualified for the finals.

There are two qualifying zones in all. Group B preliminaries are scheduled to be held in DR Congo from 21 to 30 September, 2006.
The final round of the competition will take place in Lagos, Nigeria from 10 to 19 November, 2006.

The last time Liberian clubs were at the African Champions Cup was in 2005. By then, the country was represented by NPA Pythons and LPRC Oilers