Champs KPA one step away from semifinals

KPA's Moses Wanjara (left) and Alvin Nyangweso of USIU Tigers during Kenya Basketball Classic Play offs at Nyayo National Stadium's Gymnasium on Sunday, Nov 4, 2018. [Jonah Onyango, Standard]

Kenya Basketball Federation (KBF) men and women Premier League champions Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) triumphed in their respective quarter-finals first round matches to inch closer to the last four.

KPA yesterday beat United States International University of Africa (USIU-A) Tigers and Kenyatta University (KU) Oryx in the men and women’s playoff matches at Nyayo Stadium Gymnasium.

Evergreen Victor Bosire anchored the dockers to a 69-55 victory with 16 points on the score-sheet. Dicky Aran and Victor Odendo scored 10 and nine points each as KPA cruised to a 1-0 lead over Tigers.

However, it was USIU-A’s Job Byron who ruled the courts with a towering 20 points despite his side failing to overcome the champions.

KPA made their intentions know by the breather as they took a 17-point lead ahead of the students as the scores stood at 38-21.

Even so, Tigers were not ready to go down without a proper fight and took charge of the game in the third quarter winning 20-16.

The final period was a tight contest with KPA squeezing a half basket lead and taking it 15-14.

Contesting for the last four slot in the best-of-three format, KPA need to win the second round match to secure a semis slot.

In the women’s contest, Premier League defending champions KPA trounced KU Oryx 60-33 to set one foot into the semi-finals.

Annerose Mandella was KPA’s top scorer with 12 points while Beryl Milungo was the top girl for Oryx with nine. 

The Kenyatta University students surrendered the match in the first quarter allowing the dockers to take an emphatic 21-6 lead at the end of the first quarter. The game was done and dusted by the halftime with KPA leaving no room for the students to recover as they enjoyed a 20-point lead. 

KPA played as champions sinking in 24 points in the third quarter as the hapless Oryx struggled to contain them. Sure of victory and not willing to subject the students to a heavy defeat, KPA relaxed in the final quarter allowing Oryx to take it 7-4.

KPA coach Antony Ojukwu was pleased to have inched closer to the last four.

“We needed the victory because at this point, it’s only winning that counts. We played well but of course there is always room for improvement,” Ojukwu said.

In men’s Division One playoffs, it was a bad day in office for Zetech University as they suffered defeats to Nairobi University’s Terror and KU Pirates.

Zetech lost 48-54 to Terror while their second side Titans went down 37-50 to KU Pirates.