Saturday Results
Power78-69 Falcons
Women:
UCU 74-68 KIU
(Power, UCU lead series 2-1)
Norman Blick is the cog that was missing from DMark Power’s MTN-Fuba League best-of-five semifinal series with Mountain Dew Falcons until Saturday night.
Not that did the two-time MVP wasn’t playing, the wound on his right sustained in game one last week has greatly curtailed his influence as Power seek chance to reclaim the crown they lost to Kyambogo Warriors last year.
Blick’s return to form with 20 points spurred his team to comeback 78-69 victory over Falcons to take 2-1 lead in a game brought forward by 24 hours due to unavailability of the MTN-NCS Arena Lugogo yesterday.
Trailing 17-20 and 17-20 after the first two periods, the three-time champion with Skyjammers and Nkumba Marines (2) was the main catalyst when Power employed their customary full court press to wrestle the final two quarters 19-12 and 25-15.
“Situations like these demand that you play with your heart and we did. Falcons wanted us to play half court basketball to wear our minds down since our strength is transition,” Blick said as his column read a further six rebounds and six assists.
Prior to the game, the forward had demanded more from the big men after the 85-83 loss in game two and got his response as centre Robert Mubiru dropped 18 points and seven rebounds. “If we play like we did tonight, the title is ours. Our problem in the game we lost was selfishness,” Mubiru told Daily Monitor. Isaac Lugudde was as essential with 16. Richard Osano Omondi couldn’t rescue Falcons again as he managed 13 points and 12 rebounds.
Peter Elungat added an inconsequential game-high 22. “Patience was lacking today so we must go back to our strong point to stay alive,” Michael Mureithi, Falcons acting coach, noted. His team only made 15 of 32 from the floor in addition to six out of 23 downtown attempts as opposed to Power’s 22 of 40 and five of 16 respectively.
Earlier, Anastasia Njeri (31) and Lorraine Akinyi (22) combined for more than half of the points as UCU Lady Canons beat KIU Rangers 74-68 to go 2-1 up.