By Erick Ochieng’
Sensational Eastern Queens outplayed Yana 67- 36 in the women’s Premier League match played at the Kenya Methodist University in Meru at the weekend.
The victory was made possible by efforts from the in-form Hilda Indasi and Caro Ouma who gave Eastern Queens 12 and nine points.
It is now possible that Yana, who had improved their game last weekend to pull themselves to rank with Mennonites, Queens and KPA at six points a piece, will this week dip to the lower half of the category.
League favourites and Africa Zone Five women’s champions, Kenya Ports Authority (KPA), is the only team that has successfully challenged the sixth-placed Eastern Queens at their Meru backyard.
While Eastern Queens were basking in the victory, KPA teams saw their two weeks of hard training come to nought as Eagle Wings and Posta failed to turn up at the Makande Gymnasium for their matches.
"We waited for them but they didn’t turn up. My manager told me Posta have declined to play matches until the end of Kecoso games while Eagle Wings could not afford transport to Mombasa," said KPA head coach Anthony Ojukwu on telephone on Sunday.
Raised questions
Failure by Wings to travel to Mombasa have raised questions on whether the team, which emerged runners-up in last year’s women’s Premier League, would make it to Kampala for the East and Central Africa Clubs championship later this month.
"We are in serious need of funds to enable us go for the championship in Kampala and we appeal to Kenya Basketball Federation, the Government and companies to come to our aid," said one of the Eagle Wings officials recently.
It has also been observed that the four teams training for the regional championships are avoiding league matches since they do not want to incur injuries and fatigue.
Regional event
Other teams gearing up for the regional event include women’s Premier League champions KPA, men’s Premier League runners-up Co-operative Bank, and men’s Premier League champions KCB Lions.
On Sunday at Nyayo Gymnasium, Mennonites maintained their winning streak by defeating World Hope 76-69. Collins Ochieng and Billy Ongute gave the winners 27 and 10 points while the most outstanding players for World Hope were Maurice Obibo and Erick Kayiere who had 18 and 12 points.
Visiting Masinde Muliro University (MMUST) proved troublesome for Kenya College of Accountancy University (KCA-U) at the same spot. MMUST, who started by winning the first quarter 15-13, failed to clinch the second quarter, which went to KCA-U 20-14.
On resumption, Martin Kitunga inspired MMUST to win 24-12 and 19-6 in the third and final quarters to put the results 72-51 in favour of MMUST.
Kitunga, who was dazzling at both ends of the court, scored an overall 25 points while his team mate, Kenneth Wena, had 15. KCA-U’s Jeremy Kwendo and Robert Junje scored 12 and eight points.