By CAXTON APOLLO
Two local men and women’s basketball teams will represent Kenya in this year’s Africa club championships.
Kenya Basketball Federation (KBF) secretary-general Vitalis Gode said on Thursday that Co-operative Bank (men) and Kenya Ports Authority (women) have been registered by the continental body Fiba-Africa to represent Africa Zone Five in the two championships.
The men’s tournament will, for the first time, be held in Kigali, Rwanda, from December 4-13 and the women’s event in Benin from November 13-22.
Co-op Bank and KPA qualified after winning Zone Five elimination round matches in Kampala, Uganda, early this month. Co-op Bank beat hosts Warriors 53-47 in the men’s final as KPA bundled out Uganda’s Kampala City Council 67-45 in the women’s final. Other participants were Burundi, Tanzania and Rwanda.
KPA and Eagle Wings represented Kenya in last year’s club championship which was staged in Nairobi for the first time but failed to finish in the medal bracket.
Desportivo of Mozambique and Angola’s Primeiro Agosto retained the men’s and women’s titles in Nairobi and Tunis, Tunisia, respectively.
International Christian Centre at the weekend beat league champions Kenya Commercial Bank Lions 73-67 to jump from third place and dislodge them from the top of the table at the weekend. ICC now have 19 points from 11 outings, having won eight matches and lost three.
Lions are second on 18 from eight wins and two loses as Co-op Bank, who crashed 70-65 to underdogs Strathmore University, are third with 15 points (five wins and five loses). Strathmore climbed to fourth with 15 points.