Basketball in Africa

27th May 2006.
In Mombasa City United States International University(USIU) both men and women lost the league games against Coast Youth Comined(CYC) team and defending champions Kenya Ports Authority(KPA) respectively.KPA beat USIU Flames 103-39 and being the first women teamto raech a century mark scores r in the year,while the CYC beat USIU Tigers 68-66 to which the Tigers protested after the match saying the CYC players were allowed to play without licence cards and poor officiating.

In Nairobi Telkom men crushed Jomo Kenyatta University of Agricuture and Technology(JKUAT) 72(34) - 67(39) with Solomon Ochieng pouring 20pts and teamate Godfrey Abuya giving 14pts while JKUAT's Alex Olaba 19pts to Collins Kiprono 10pts in the lower Division 1 while Sprite Storms won by a whisk 1point to beat Telkom women 48-47.At the break Telkom were leading 33-32.Hilda Luvandwa gave 17pts while Angela Luchivya 13pts of Storms while Joyce Makungu 15pts and Caroline Achieng 08pts.It was Rebecca Serange who made the last basket of Telkom to close the game 48-47 with 2secs to go.
In the main game of the day mens premier league Ulinzi maintained there unbaeten run when the whipped Co-operative Bank of Kenya(Co-op) 85 - 80.Its was Ansett Wafula's 22pts and Victor Odendo 21pts that made Ulinzi beat Co-op again just after the East Central Africa Club Championships held in Nairobi a month ago.Co-op were saved by Collins Macharia 18pts and John Waruru 17pts.
At the break Co-op were leading 43-38 while they only beat Ulinzi in the first quarter 25-19 while were losing the 2nd quarter 18-19,3rd17-20 and last quarter 17-20.Co-op lead throughout till the third quarter with 4mins and 25secs to go Ulinzi took the lead 48-47.In the last quarter Co-op tied the game with 3mins played at 56-56 and Ulinzi went ahead with Richard Osano's 3pointer and never trailed again even took a 10pts lead with2mis 47secs to go.Wycliff Ocheing of Co-op attempted a 3point shot and was fouled on the buzzer by Victor Odendo which the scores were 77-85 with Ochieng scoring all the 3 free throw ending the game with 5pts difference.With the return of the star point guard Simon Mugambi who had gone for a peace keep mission with the UN in Sierra Leone made life easier for Ulinzi.

Juma Kent
Nairobi-Kenya.