Kenya Ports Authority men and women basketball teams are the teams to beat in this year’s national classic basketball league after easily dismissing their opponents in the weekend home league matches in Mombassa on Saturday.
A resurgent KPA men who collected a rare maximum points in their tour of Nairobi the previous weekend beating ICC and Cooperative Bank were at it again this time teaching Postal some simple basketball lessons with a 76-58 thumping.
The mailmen, who came into the match with a lot of confidence after beating Cooperative Bank in a midweek clash in Nairobi, were a pale shadow of themselves as KPA took command from the word go and ran rings round them throughout the encounter.
The big -talking Ben Oluoch,Desmond Owili and Franklin Delano from whom much was expected had no ideas and had to sit on the bench for a better part of the game as stand in coach Jeff Muthui opted for young Oliver Musembi to control the proceedings as Tony Okello, Fred Odongo, Innocent Oduor and Dan Okwiri of KPA did the damage in this game handled by referees Abbas Ulaya and Seif Liwali.
KPA led 19-12 in the first quarter and 20-13 in the second for a 39-25 halftime lead. Okello and Okwiri top scored with 16 points while Oduor managed 11 points. Delano top scored for Posta with 12 points.
In the women’s encounter, KPA beat Sprite Storms 50-26 after leading 18-10 at the break. Angela Luchivya who is making a comeback after a long lay off was outstanding for Storms with 18 points while Joyce Makhungu had 15 points for KPA.
Co-operative Bank made a dramatic finish to scoop the second position in the men’s basketball league as the regular season ended with decisive matches in Nairobi,Kakamega and Mombasa at the weekend.
Runners-up position
The bankers beat Tigers of the USIU-A 67-61 in a tight match at Nyayo Stadium on Sunday the victory which guaranteed them the runner-up position with 40 points.
A win for Posta in Mombasa would have earned them second spot since they had beaten Co-op Bank twice in the regular season. They completed their matches with 39 points after winning 17 games and lost five.
Co-op Bank, who led 33-30 against the varsity students with Eugene Genga, scoring 19 points, will again take on the seventh placed USIU-A in the best-of-three series play-offs.
Champions KCB Lions made sure that they finished top with 41 points following their deserved 67-57 win over hosts Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology in Kakamega.
Lions, who have won 19 matches and lost three, will start as favourites to retain the title a record of four-times in arow against lowly rated Strathmore University.