Eagle Wings on Sunday struggled to edge out champions Kenya Ports Authority 54-52 in a highly charged decisive Game Three of the play-offs final to win their first women’s basketball league championship at Nairobi’s Nyayo Stadium.
Men’s defending champions Kenya Commercial Bank Lions retained the league title for the third time in a row when they demolished KPA 97-90 in Game Two to win the best of three finals 2-0 final on Saturday night.
Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology on Saturday claimed the men’s Division One league crown on their first attempt with a 82-72 victory Blazers.
Kenya College of Accountancy-University took the third position in the lower competition after beating Parklands Baptist 51-49 in their third and fourth position play-off tie.
It was celebration for the self-supporting Eagle Wings who rallied from a game down to deny champions KPA their third straight title by winning the best-of-three series women’s final 2-1.
KPA had dominated the women’s championship winning a record eight titles in 1992, 1998, 2002-5, 2007 and 2008. Telkom had interrupted the dock-women’s dominance by winning the crown in 2006.
Eagle Wings, had lost their opener with a huge 14 points margin (70-56) in Mombasa but capitalised on the home court advantage to defeat the dock-women 68-48 in Game Two on Saturday.
After tying the series 1-1, Sunday’s make-or-break Game Three was to determine the 2009 women’s champions.
KPA had pressure on their side from the first whistle as Eagle Wings started sounding an early warning through the efforts of star-of-the match Anastasia Njeri and Brigdid Nanzala.
Wings raced a 5-0 lead as Njeri disorganised the dock-women with two consecutive three-pointers to lead 17-9 in the first quarter.
The dock-women failed to utilise their scoring chances missing the target as the game became tight with Wings going dry for three minutes.