KPA bag second win at Africa Women Basketball League qualifiers

KPA's Natalie Akinyi in action in Rwanda.[FIBA]

The race for Africa Women Basketball League (AWBL) slots continued on Monday at the LDK gymnasium in Kigali, Rwanda with Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) and Rwanda Energy Group (REG) registering wins. 

Former champions, KPA, were taking on Tanzania's Jeshi la Kujenga Taifa (JKT) in their second match of the 9-team FIBA Zone Five Women's competition, having seen off JKL Lady Dolphins of Uganda in their opener on Sunday. 

The Antony Ojukwu-led Kenyan champions lived up to their billing, defeating JKT 105-43 for their second win of the competition while subjecting the Tanzanian side to their third loss in as many matches.

From the get-go, it was clear the clash would be a mismatch as KPA raced to a 32-10 first-quarter outcome, Victoria Reynolds leading the scoring charts with 11 points after just 7.30 minutes on the floor. 

A 21-14 second-quarter performance by the Dockers gave them a 29-point advantage going into the halftime break with Aminata Samassekou joining Reynolds in the double-digits club with 10 points in the two quarters. 

The second half was no different as KPA ran the scores for 25-10 and 27-09 score lines to take the 62-point victory that gave them a huge advantage as far as group stage competition goes. 

Samassekou who played just 19.31 minutes had a huge impact on KPA's massive victory dropping 19 points, 8 assists and 8 steals while Madina Okot bagged a double-double with 16 points and 10 rebounds to emerge as the side's second-best scorer.

Reynolds who was sparingly used after her first-quarter performance took her points tally to 15 with 4 assists and 2 steals to boot. Hilda Indasi added 10 points for KPA. 

As expected, all the statistics favoured the Kenyan side with Ojukwu's charges boasting a 54-9 points advantage from turnovers, 29-06 second-chance points and 56-06, 55-11 off fast breaks and bench points respectively.