KENYA : Five Kenyan teams storm basketball tourney semi-finals

By CAXTON APOLLO

All the five Kenyan men’s and women’s basketball teams had qualified for Saturday night’s semi-finals of the Zone Five club championship elimination matches at the YMCA gymnasium in Kampala, Uganda.

Kenya Ports Authority were taking on Eagle Wings in an all-Kenyan women’s semi-final while Co-operative Bank were to lock horns with fellow Kenyans KPA in the second men’s semi-final. In the first semi, reigning league champions Kenya Commercial Bank Lions were to face hosts Warriors of Uganda at 8pm.

Uganda’s Kampala City Council had shocked tournament favourites Rwanda Patriotic Army 74-66 to sail into today’s women’s final. KCC will meet the winner between KPA and Eagle Wings in the final. APR had beaten KPA 64-39 in their preliminary round match.

Battled from behind

In the quarter-finals of the seven-day championship, KCB Lions booked a date with hosts Warriors in the semi-final when they battled from behind to beat Rwanda’s Marines 64-61 on Friday night. Marines had given the bankers a rude shock with a huge 18-8 first quarter lead.

They went ahead to dictate terms, leading 38-27 at half-time. But Victor Odendo and Dennis Opiyo had to use their experience to sink 14 points each to steer Lions into the semis.

KPA rocked hosts Falcons 90-66 after leading 40-29 to qualify for the semis. The Odari brothers Musa and Francis were the key actors for KPA, who won all the four quarters. Francis nailed a game-high 23 points and Musa 20.

The winners in both the men’s and women’s categories will qualify to represent Fiba Africa Zone Five in the final tour of the Africa club championships to be held in Benin and Rwanda later this year.

At the Nyayo National Stadium on Saturday, Erick Odhiambo and William Ochieng’ scored 12 points apiece to help Posta defeat Lomboritz 82-57. Lomboritz had given Posta an early scare, locking the scores 21-21 in the first quarter, but lacked consistency to trail 47-32 at half-time.
Charles Kituyi and Felix Omondi each had 10 points for the losers. In other matches at same venue, Eastern Queens whitewashed the fast fading Sprite Storms 64-36 after leading 34-21 at the breather.
Hilda Indasi scored a record 36 points for Eastern Queens, who are unbeaten in five matches, as Anjela Luchivya shot 16 for Storms.

Flames of the USIU-A harvested two points following their 41-36 win over Strathmore University. Samba Mjomba had 16 points and Barbara Kithinji adding 13 for the winners, who were up 16-13 at half-time. Nairobi Pentecostal Church rocked African Nazarene University 56-36 in the lower competition tie. Hosts Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology registered a record breaking 115-75 win against visiting World Hope from Nairobi at the Kakamega Police Canteen.