Basketball: Strathmore Blades in razor-sharp form

Blade's Shilton Ochieng (left) of Strathmore University and Adriel Mapesa of Zetech University during Kenya Basketball League at Strathmore University, Sept 24, 2017. [Jonah Onyango, Standard]

Ulinzi Warriors and Strathmore University Blades at the weekend won their respective first leg matches during the Kenya Basketball Federation men's Premier League held at United States International University-Africa (USIU-A)

Ulinzi Warriors, also preparing for the first edition of the Africa Masculine Military Basketball Championship to be held in Congo Brazzaville from Yesterday (Monday) to 21, beat Kenya College of Accountancy - University (KCA-U) 52-48.

The closely contested match saw KCA-U win 14-9 in the first quarter over the no-nonsense officers.

KCA-U went ahead to win 24-13 against the Paramilitary side Ulinzi at the breather before Ulinzi overcame the upset in the last two quarters to win 16-12 and 23-12 to emerge 52-48 victorious over the accountants.

In the other encounter, Strathmore University Blades continued with their winning form seeing off Thunder 85-75.

Umoja in another hotly contested encounter that saw baskets crisscross each other as the players dangled to loop the ball inside the net narrowly defeated bankers Equity Bank 56-53.

ANU silenced Terror 58-25 in Division one category that was also staged at the same venue, signs that ANU were going for nothing short of the win started in the first quarter that they sank 14 baskets against Terror’s 7, they (ANU) won the second quarter 9-4, and completed the last two quarters with a 14-8 and 21-6 score to emerge the winners.

EMYBA defeated KU Pirates 59-54 in another division one encounter, as Zetech Titans saw off Strathmore by a narrow 60-57 score in another encounter.

And former Division one side Blazers continued with their good run after they walloped Woodley Knights 60-47 in a tough encounter staged at the same venue.

Blazers kicked off the match on a high note silencing Nights 18-10 in the first quarter, which they followed with a 16-9 win, the third quarter saw the two teams go even with a 10-10 score as Knights won the last quarter 18-15, which never helped them in any way as points had already went Blazers way.

In other lower division matches KDF Morans piped Eldonets 53-50 in another tough match before Dagoretti High School silenced Allstars 70-38 in a one-sided encounter. [Phillip Orwa ]