Basketball in Africa

BEFORE the curtain went down on the finals of the 9th edition of the Africa Zone 5 Inter City Championships yesterday evening, many basketball fans in Nairobi, Kenya were wondering how a women's team could score higher than all their counterparts including men.
The Kampala City Council team came into the tournament as second best but mesmerized crowds with high scoring games including a century against Kisumu that preceded another astounding 96-46 drubbing of Dar es Salaam.

In the opening game, Kampala broke down home side Nairobi's tight defense to register a 77-64 win, an equally high score and wrapped up the preliminaries with a 72-66 victory over Nairobi Combined.

In the semi-finals on Friday, Kampala met the same combined side and hit them 83-66.

In total excluding the finals, the Kampala team has scored 421 points. Kampala's Frances Nabulobi, who turns out for Lady Bucks in the local league, is topping the scorers' charts with 113 points from five games including a record 16 three-pointers while Hadijja Kiiza has established herself as the 'minister of defence'.

Semi final results

Women
Kampala 82 N' Combined 66
Nairobi A 86 Dar 46

Road to final
Kampala 7 1 Nairobi 64
Kampala 96 Dar 46
Kampala 100 Kisumu 37
Kampala 72 N.Combined 66

# posted by afrbk : 12:59