International Christian Centre kept their top spot on the national basketball league standings after last weekend’s matches, which were characterised by lowest scores this year, in Nairobi and Mombasa.
ICC won their third straight first leg match when they rocked newcomers Lomboritz 68-57 at the Nyayo National Stadium on Sunday to stay at the top with seven points. They have only narrowly lost their season opener 64-61, to Ronnie Owino’s Posta.
The 2009 season witnessed the lowest scores when Posta struggled to beat University of Nairobi’s Terrorists 45-26.
The two teams played poorly, with the students failing to score in double figures in all the four quarters. Terrorists, who had harrased Co-op Bank before going down 56-55 in their first game, shocked many when they registered 6, 7, 7, 6.
Kenya Ports Authority men’s team grabbed the second position following their hard-fought 83-70 win against visiting Tigers of the United States International University in Mombasa.
The dockers, who had earlier beaten Terrorists 68-59 and crashed 89-83 to ICC in overtime, have garnered five points. KPA has played three matches, won two and lost one.
KPA women’s team’s 85-15 whitewash over Flames of the USIU-A in Mombasa has raised many questions on the standards of the game this year. Flames have lost two matches in a row, and it appears KPA might have little opposition in the competition.
The Ports women had silenced posible challengers Eagle Wings 2-0 in last year’s playoff final, and that the USIU students scored only 15 points in 20 minutes stopping time is worrying.
Champions Kenya Commercial Bank Lions were stretched to the limit before they pipped strong rivals Co-op Bank 60-59 in a tight tie on Saturday. Lions needed the contributions from new star Luka Lukongo and Tobias Onyango to win with one minutes 10 seconds left.
Big panic
The two teams had tied 56-56 with Allan Ouma’s superb three-pointer sending Lions in to big panic. Lions have collected maximum four points from two outings while Co-op Bank have managed three points from one win and one loss.
Newcomers Lomboritz still found the going tough when they lost their third consecutive match on their first attempt in the top league. ICC beat them hands down 68-57. They had again lost 91-62 to Lions and Strathmore University 61-60.
Other teams that collected two points at the weekend were Blazers, Eagle Wings and Parklands Baptist.
Weekend results
Parklands Baptist 52, NPC 43; Eagle Wings 70, Strathmore 47; KCB Lions 60, Co-op Bank 59; ICC 68, Lomboritz 57; World Hope 57, Blazers 73; KPA (men) 83, Tigers 70; KPA (women) 85 Flames 15