11 April 2009
KENYA : Laiser face Kamusinga
By PHILIP ONYANGO in EMBU
Defending champions Laiser Hill Academy face newcomers Friends School Kamusinga in the basketball final of the national secondary schools ball games at Kangaru School, on Saturday.
Laiser Hill rallied from behind to beat Maseno School 58-51, while Kamusinga were made to sweat before beating St Austin’s Academy 79-74 in the semis, on Friday.
In the girls’ category, newcomers Shimba Hills face Tigoi Girls in the final. Shimba beat Langata High of Nairobi 66-21, while Tigoi floored Manor House of Rift Valley 83-60 in the semis.
Against St Austin’s, Kamusinga’s Ben Ongwae Okari was the man of the match, scoring a game high 38 points.
Kamusinga led 14-13 in the first quarter and went ahead to widen the gap to 40-33 at the break. The resurgernt St Autin’s oustscored Kamusinga 21-10 in the third quarter to take a temporary 54-50 lead and continued their anslaught winning the fourth quarter 20-19, but this was too little to too late to cut the eight point margin.
The Laiser Hill/Maseno clash was another cracker as Laiser led 9-8 and 38-26 at the break, while Maseno controlled the last two quarters, winning the third 14-13 and fourth 11-07.
The Shimba Hills/Langata semi-final clash was lop-sided with the former leading 11-0 in the first quarter and 31-04 at the break.
A late rally by Mercy Wanyama and Virginia Awino, who combined for the 21 points, saw Langata under the tutelage of Peter Orero and Radhi Ndalu close the gap to 66-21.
Purity Odhiambo scored 40 points for Shimba Hills while Fatma Mohamed had eight.Tigoi led Manor House 23-16 in the first quarter and never looked back to lead 43-37 at the break and 67-45 in the third quarter.
Hilevi Ayodi scored 22 points and Nancy Atieno 18 for Tigoi while Manor House replied through Winnie Wafula who had 18 points while Mercy Cherotich made six points.
In the finals programmed for Saturday, Shimba Hills take on Tigoi Girls in the first semi finals from 10.00 am while Freinds School Kamusinga and Laiser Hill clash in the second semi final from 11.30
# posted by afrbk : 16:22
