KPA maintain unbeaten run after raiding Equity Bank

KPA's Martin Kitongo drible ball past Maroll Washington of Umoja during KBF League match at the Nyayo National stadium on July 17, 2022. [Jonah Onyango, Standard]

Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) basketball teams registered positive results away from home after dominating the Kenya Basketball Federation (KBF) Premier League matches played over the weekend in Nairobi.

In the women’s league, KPA stretched their unbeaten run to five matches after seeing off University of Naiorbi Dynamites and former champions Equity Hawks.

The reigning champions saw off Dynamites 64-30 on Saturday before a 20-point performance from captain Natalie Akinyi on Sunday inspired the visitors to a massive 73-42 win over arch-rivals Equity Bank Hawks at Nyayo Stadium.

National team trio of Selina Okumu, Natalie Akinyi and Jemimah Knight ensured the porters came out on top after outplaying Equity’s experienced trio of Joy Adondo, Linet Atieno and Hilda Ndegwa.

Equity Hawks, who lost 3-1 to KPA in last year’s play-offs final, scored through Linet Atieno, Joy Adongo and Silalei Shani who each dropped 10 points.

Knight added 19 points to Akinyi’s 20 points while Okumu dropped 13 points and four rebounds.

The win took KPA to the top of the table with 10 points same as Zetech Sparks who shocked Equity64-47 on Saturday. Both KPA and Zetech are unbeaten after five matches.

Speaking after the match, KPA head coach Anthony Ojukwu said he was impressed with how the team is playing both defensively and offensively.

“It was a good game and I give all the players on the court today the credit. We really dictated the game, gave direction and communicated well on defence. Our offence was well executed. Jemimah, Natalie and Belinda, really showed up in the game,” said Ojukwu.

“Equity is a tough team to play against and to outscore them and dominate the match the way we did shows we are getting better day by day as the season progresses.”

Other matches saw Dynamites register their first match of the season defeating Storms 31-16 in a low scoring match played at the same venue.

Dynamites were playing their second match of the season after losing 30-64 in their opener against KPA on Saturday.

In the men’s league, champions KPA saw off winless Terrorists 62-52 on Saturday before making it two wins with a 57-45 win over Umoja on Sunday.

Other matches saw Lakeside from Kisumu go down 63-30 to African Nazarene University.

Meanwhile, Kenya national women’s Under 23 team punch their ticket to the World Championship set for September in Romania after edging out Uganda 15-12 in a tough round six women’s final of the 2022 Fiba 3x3 Under-23 Nations League Africa (South) held at Nyayo National Stadium.

Kenyan girls are Madina Okot, Alexandra Juma, Babra Achieng’ and Jacquilyne Kogo will fly the nations flag after their men’s counterparts failed to go through.