Cooperative Bank basketball of Kenya on match Day-1 of the 24th FIBA Africa Champions Club for men escape with a 71-70 points victory over hard fighting Warriors basketball club of Uganda to register the first win in the competition.
Both sides gave a good account of themselves with the Kenya side going up by 20-13 points in the first quarter, the Ugandan fought back gallantly in the second and third quarters as both quarters ended 17-17 and 20-20 points apiece with Cooperative Bank side going into the final quarter with a 57-50 point’s advantage.
But it was a hard fighting Warriors of Uganda side that fought a spirited battle to pick the quarter at 20-14 points to lose by just one point of 71-70 points.
Cooperative Bank Bugene Genga led his side with 17 points and 9 rebounds, John Ajik added 13 points and 7 rebounds while the duo of Moses Kamtu and Brian Bussu contributed 13 and 12 points respectively to give their side hard earned victory.
Warriors’ Martin Okwanko and Ramadan Abdallah 18 points, 9 rebounds and 14 points fell short from saving their side from defeat.