Oketch ready to disarm Ulinzi Warriors at KBF playoffs

Lakeside coach Dismas Oketch (right) instructs his players. Inset, Justus Okitoyi.[Washington Onyango,Kisumu]

Lakeside Basketball Club head coach Dismas Oketch hopes to sail through at the Kenya Basketball Federation (KBF) Men’s Premier League quarter finals playoffs when they take on defending champions Ulinzi Warriors at Manyatta Arabs in Kisumu today.

The Kisumu-based club finished eighth in the regular season after a tough campaign occasioned by Covid-19 anfinancial constraints but Oketch is upbeat ahead of the match.

Oketch said the team is not afraid especially after beating the champions during the regular season in February last year.

“The team has prepared well and ready to host the defending champions. Ulinzi is a good side with national team players and fresh from the Basketball African League (BAL).

“Having won a game against them during the regular season the lads are psyched. Lakeside is a young team and we will bank on our athletism as we go into the playoffs,” said Oketch.

The KBF Women’s Premier League will also tip off alongside the Division One leagues as the local basketball league resumes after a four-week break with the men’s league the highlight of the weekend in the quarterfinals set to be played in best of three format kick off.

Meanwhile, Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) will face off against Eldonets in the quarterfinals to be played in Eldoret.

KPA finished second in the regular season behind defending champions Ulinzi Warriors and have been paired together with Eldonets who finished seventh.

Nairobi Thunder will entertain Strathmore Blades in another quarterfinal as Equity play University of Nairobi’s Terror.

In the women’s Premier League, regular season leaders KPA will face off against Strathmore as University of Nairobi’s Dynamites take on Storms.