KPA goes down to Cape Town Tigers in Basketball Africa League
Basketball
By
Washington Onyango
| Nov 23, 2022
Local champions Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) on Wednesday lost their second match of the Basketball Africa League (BAL) qualifiers after going down 96-72 to Cape Town Tigers of South Africa in Johannesburg despite an improved show.
The Kenya Basketball Federation (KBF) Premier League champions on Tuesday kicked off the last round of the BAL qualifiers on the back foot after losing 72-43 to Burundi club Urunani.
The Dockers needed a win against the hosts to stand a chance of qualifying for the next stage.
George Williams led KPA with 24 points and eight rebounds as the Kenyans lost while Evans Ganapamo, Michael Gbinije and Raphiael
Putney scored 20, 19 and 18 points respectively off the bench to complete a comeback win.
KPA led 26-19 by the end of the first quarter before the hosts responded with a big 22-12 second-quarter performance to lead 41-38 at the half.
In the third quarter, things went from bad to worse for KPA who trailed 34-23 before the Tigers closed out the game with another 21-11 big performance in the last quarter.
KPA who are in Group A of the East Division of the Elite 16 will play NBA Academy Africa of Senegal on Thursday from 3pm in their last match.
Group B will have Ferroviario De Beira of Mozambique, Matero Magic of Zambia, City Oilers of Uganda and COSPN of Madagascar.
KPA qualified for the second round of the BAL qualifiers after finishing second in the first round that was held in Madagascar last month.
The Dockers produced a 130-37 victory against Djabal basketball club of Djibouti before losing their second and last match against hosts
Omnisport de la Police Nationale (COSPN) 66-60 in the first round.
On the other hand, the Burundian champions finished the preliminary qualifiers held in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania last month with a perfect 3-0 record, overcoming Army Basketball Club of Tanzania), City Oilers of Uganda and Matero Magic of Zambia.
Only three teams will qualify for the final BAL show from the East Division which has eight teams.