KPA RE-WRITE OWN HISTORY:Dockers make club basketball championships quarters after years of futile attempts

Natalie Akinyi of KPA in past league action at Nyayo Stadium.[PHOTO: JONAH ONYANGO/STANDARD]

Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) have successfully qualified for quarterfinals in the ongoing Fiba Africa Women Clubs Championship in Maputo, Mozambique.

KPA qualified for the quarters after amassing five points, which forced a tie with hosts Ferroviario Maputo and Fap Basketball of Cameroon, who had a better head-to-head count.

Former champions Inter Clube of Angola, who accumulated six points in the hotly contested group stages, topped the tough pool A.

This is the first time the dockers, who have taken part in the continental event for close to two decades, have made it out of group stages.

“We had the desire to break the jinx of always losing our matches. In previous events, we have been finishing last.

"Our victory against Etoile of Togo was historic since it is the first time we are making it to the knock-out stages in over 15 years,” said KPA assistant coach, Phillip Onyango.

An elated Onyango added: “I take pride in being part of this history with KPA. Earlier this year, I also made history with Kaya Tiwi Secondary School basketball team that won national and East Africa basketball titles.”

KPA sailed to the next round after beating Etoile of Togo 71-55 to garner two crucial points in the encounter.

They also got three points after losing to Ferroviario, Inter Clube and Fap.

Head coach Anthony Ojukwu and Onyango said they are going to work on some of their shortcomings and approach tomorrow's quarterfinal with much caution.

“We realised that we lacked confidence in our opening match against Fap. Our players seemed to have stage fright playing in such a big stage, but we are glad with our progress so far. This is the moment we require our best form."

“We are also telling our players they need to keep shooting and make use of their opponents' turnovers and simple mistakes. Life is all about taking chances and this is no different.

"Basically, we are taking time to rectify some of the avoidable mistakes we made in the group stages,” said Onyango.

As KPA, who are also the Fiba Africa Zone V Clubs Basketball champions continue basking in glory, the script is quite different for the other Kenyan team, United States International University (USIU).

USIU, who are also the national Women Premier League champions, were hopeful of beating First Bank of Nigeria last evening to book a quarterfinal berth.

The students have so far lost all their three group stage matches at the championship.