Ekene Ibekwe

Ekene Ibekwe
Player information
Full name	Ekenechukwu Brian Ibekwe
birthday	July 19, 1985 (35 years 43 days)
place of birth	Los Angeles , California , United States
size	206 cm
position	Power Forward / Center
college	Maryland (College Park)
Club information
society	Fraport Skyliners
league	Basketball Bundesliga
Clubs as active
2003–2007 UMCP Terrapins ( NCAA ) 2007–2008 Hapoel Gilboa / Afula 2008 Besançon BCD 2008–2009 Selçuk Üniversitesi 2009 Gigantes de Carolina ( BSN ) 2009–2010 Genç Banvitliler 2010 Artland Dragons 2011 Ironi Aschkelon 2011–2012 BBC Bayreuth 2012–2013 Lagun Aro GBC 2014–2015 New Zealand Breakers 2015 Atenienses de Manatí (BSN) 2015 Gießen 46ers 2016 Krasny Oktjabr Volgograd 2016 Club Sagesse 2016 ČEZ Nymburk Since 2016 Fraport Skyliners 00000 00000 00000 00000 00000 00000 00000 00000 00000 0
National team
Since 2005	Nigeria

Ekene Ibekwe medal table
Basketball (men)
Nigeria
African championship basketball
bronze	2005 Province of Algiers

Ekenechukwu Brian "Ekene" Ibekwe (born July 19, 1985 in Los Angeles , California ) is a native American basketball player who competes internationally for his parents' homeland, Nigeria . After studying in his native country, Ibekwe played professionally for clubs on all continents apart from Africa , including in Germany for the first division clubs Artland Dragons, BBC Bayreuth and Gießen 46ers. As a Nigerian national player , Ibekwe was a participant in World Cup finals and also in the national team's only two Olympic appearances in 2012 in London and 2016 in Rio . In the 2016/17 basketball Bundesliga , Ibekwe plays for the Fraport Skyliners Frankfurt.

Career

Ibekwe studied at the University of Maryland, College Park and played for the university team Terrapins from 2003 in the NCAA Division I. In his senior year 2007, the Terps, who had been winners of the NCAA Division I basketball championship in 2002 , reached the second round in the national championship. In 2005 the talented young player was appointed to the Nigerian national basketball team, with which he won the bronze medal at the 2005 African Championships in Algiers. After the selection in the semi-finals was defeated by defending champion and series winner Angola , they defeated host Algeria in the "small" final , against whom the selection in the preliminary round had just lost by one point. A year later, the Nigerian national team took part in the 2006 World Cup finals for the second time in their history as a medalist . In the opening game they beat defending champions Serbia and Montenegro , who had competed four years earlier as the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia , and after another victory in the last group game over the Lebanese they reached the knockout rounds in the round of 16 for the first time . Here they lost to Vice European Champion Germany around NBA star player Dirk Nowitzki with a point difference of 77:78. Talent Ibekwe also scored only one point less in this game with 22 individual points in direct comparison to Nowitzki, who was seven years older, but one more rebound and thus a double-double . In the NBA Draft 2007 a year later, Ibekwe was still not included. Also in the following years he was unsuccessful in securing a season contract in the most highly endowed US professional league NBA through engagements in the NBA Summer League .

After completing his studies, Ibekwe signed a contract in 2007 as a professional with Hapoel Galil Elyon in the Israeli Ligat ha'Al . However, the contract was dissolved before the start of the season and he moved to league rivals Hapoel Gilboa / Afula, where he played with his experienced national teammate Tunji Awojobi . The less successful syndicate of the two workers' clubs, which was bottom of the table at the end of the season and was dissolved, left Ibekwe at the end of the season and moved to the second French league LNB Pro B to Basket Comté Doubs in Besançon . The club won the play-offs as the main round eight and secured the remaining promotion place in the first division. Ibekwe, however, moved to Turkey the following season and played in Konya for Selçuk Üniversitesi. After five consecutive defeats at the end of the season, the club slipped to the penultimate place in the table and was relegated from the TBL . After a detour in 2009 in the Puerto Rican summer league Baloncesto Superior Nacional , he returned to Turkey and played in the second division.

In August 2010, Ibekwe signed a contract with the Artland Dragons in the German basketball league , which was terminated in December. After a month's contract in Ashkelon , Israel , he returned to the BBL in February 2011 and helped the promoted BBC Bayreuth to stay in the top German division, whereupon his contract was extended beyond the end of the season. Although he only played less than half of the season's games for the BBC, he was named BBC Player of the Year in an internet vote. More than relegation was not achievable in the following season. With the Nigerian national team, however, Ibekwe was able to qualify via an additional qualifying tournament for the 2012 Olympic Games in London, where they were eliminated in the preliminary round after winning five games. Ibekwe, who had only made three short appearances in London, then moved to the Spanish ACB league for the following season 2012/13 for the Basque club Lagun Aro GBC in San Sebastián in the province of Gipuzkoa . With only eight wins this season and being beaten by the places that meant staying up in the league, the team ended the season in penultimate place in the table, in which Ibekwe also fell short of expectations with an individual average of less than eight points and five rebounds per game. Ibekwe also caused a scandal after the player's allegations to the club that he had continued to play despite a serious injury. After the injury had healed, Ibekwe only got a new contract on the Australian continent a year later after this scandal.

In the 2014/15 season Ibekwe was able to rehabilitate himself when he helped the New Zealand Breakers from Auckland with a buzzer beater to win the title again in the joint NBL of Australia and New Zealand in the "Grand Final" over the Cairns Taipans . In the summer of 2015 Ibekwe again had individual missions in the BSN of Puerto Rico, where he played for the Atenienses from Manatí this time . Ibekwe then dissolved another contract in Australia with Melbourne United and returned to Europe at the beginning of the 2015/16 season. He played again in the German basketball league and received after the injury of newcomer Maurice Pluskota a two-month contract with the first division returnees 46ers from Giessen . Ibekwe played here in the front court together with his compatriots Suleiman Braimoh and finally also Gabe Olaseni , who was also signed on on loan, whereupon Ibekwe's contract was not renewed despite good performance. After the turn of the year Ibekwe Krasny Oktjabr from Volgograd joined Russia , with whom he only finished ninth in the VTB United League 2015/16 and missed the play-offs of this supranational league. After the early end of the season in Russia, Ibekwe went to the Mediterranean and from May 2016 played in Lebanon for Club Sagesse from Beirut for the first time for a club from the organizational area of FIBA Asia , after he was still active in FIBA Europe in Turkey . After twelve appearances for this club, the team lost the final series of the championship against defending champion al-Riyadi , after the sixth game of the final series was rated for the champions. When Ibekwe took part again in the Olympic Games in Rio 2016, an average of almost 17 minutes per game was used in all five preliminary round games, but could not prevent the Nigerian selection from only being bottom of the group and being eliminated again early , despite a single victory over Croatia .

After the Czech series champion ČEZ Basketball from Nymburk had initially announced the commitment of Ibekwe at the end of July 2016 , he left this again at the beginning of the season in mid-October and moved back to Germany, where he replaced the Fraport Skyliners in the 2016/17 basketball Bundesliga Frankfurt am Main plays.

Web links

• easyCredit BBL - Ekenechukwu Ibekwe - player profile on the easyCredit Basketball-Bundesliga website
• Ekene Ibekwe - Overview of participation in international FIBA tournaments on archive.fiba.com (English)
• Ekene Ibekwe - player profile on basketball-reference.com

Individual evidence

1. ↑ archive.fiba.com: 2006 FIBA ​​World Championship - Game: GERMANY vs NIGERIA. FIBA , August 27, 2006, accessed on August 21, 2016 (English, game statistics). 
2. ↑ Ekene Ibekwe - Besançon - Joueurs - Pro B. LNB.fr , accessed on August 16, 2012 (French, player statistics). 
3. ↑ Ekene Ibekwe 2008–2009. TBLStat.net, accessed on August 16, 2012 (English, seasonal statistics). 
4. ↑ Ibekwe completes Dragons roster. Sport1 , August 2, 2010, accessed on August 21, 2016 (Media Info Artland Dragons). 
5. ↑ BBC fans named Player of the Year. BBC Bayreuth , May 1, 2011, archived from the original on September 7, 2011 ; accessed on July 9, 2011 (media info). 
6. ↑ Ekene Ibekwe's profile / 2012 Olympic Men. FIBA , accessed on August 21, 2016 (English, individual tournament statistics). 
7. ↑ El Lagun Aro GBC ficha a Ekene Ibekwe por una temporada. Liga ACB , August 16, 2012, accessed on August 16, 2012 (Spanish, media info Lagun Aro GBC). 
8. ↑ ACB.COM: Ekene Ibekwe. Liga ACB , accessed on August 21, 2016 (Spanish, player profile). 
9. ^ Ibekwe carga contra el Lagun Aro. Mundo Deportivo , June 5, 2013, accessed August 21, 2016 (Spanish). 
10. ^ Niall Anderson: Ibekwe Historics Lead To Fourth Title For Breakers. (No longer available online.) NZHoops.co.nz, March 8, 2015, archived from the original on January 13, 2016 ; accessed on August 21, 2016 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
11. ↑ BSNPR.com - Equipos: Atenienses de Manati - Estadísticas 2015. Baloncesto Superior Nacional , accessed on August 21, 2016 (Spanish, team statistics ). 
12. ^ Melbourne and Ibekwe part company. Melbourne United , September 18, 2015, accessed on August 21, 2016 (English, media info). 
13. ↑ Ekene Ibekwe: This is the new addition to the Gießen 46ers. Gießener Allgemeine Zeitung , September 25, 2015, accessed on August 21, 2016 . 
14. ↑ 46ers borrow center players from Bamberg - Ibekwe leaves. Gießener Allgemeine Zeitung , November 23, 2015, accessed on August 21, 2016 . 
15. ↑ Ekene Ibekwe - game statistics, games, data, player photo. (No longer available online.) VTB United League , archived from the original on August 22, 2016 ; accessed on August 21, 2016 (English, player profile). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
16. ↑ Sagesse vs Riyadi, the federation decisions officially announced. Eurobasket.com: www.asia-basket.com, June 4, 2016, accessed on August 21, 2016 (English). 
17. ↑ Nigeria - Rio 2016 - Olympic Basketball Tournament (Men): Statistics. FIBA , accessed on August 21, 2016 (English, overview page). 
18. ↑ Nymurk is signing Ekene Ibekwe. ČEZ Nymburk , July 20, 2016, accessed on August 21, 2016 (English / Czech, media information). 
19. ↑ Bjarne Tannen, Thomas Nawrath: Reinforcement under the basket: FRAPORT SKYLINERS sign Ekene Ibekwe. Skyliners Frankfurt , October 20, 2016, accessed on October 21, 2016 (media info).