Basketball in Africa

International Christian Centre became the first team to cross the century mark in the basketball premier league this season when they whitewashed University of Nairobi’s Terrorists 101-45 in a one-sided encounter at the Nyayo National Stadium on Sunday.

Also at the same venue, red-hot Mennonites maintained their 100 per cent record when they thrashed African Nazarene University 85-64 while Yana recovered to rock United States International University’s Flames 66-55 in the women’s match.

ICC’s convincing humiliation of the Terrorists did not come as a surprise as man-of the match Philip Dinga started his shooting magic early. He opened the scoring with a three-pointer and his 10 points saw ICC run over the disorganised students 23-8 in the first quarter.

Although their defence did not impress South Africa-trained tactician Faustin Mgendi, ICC enjoyed the fans’ support, with their fanstastic plays earning them a 20-14 lead in the second quarter. The students had nothing to offer, going down 43-23 at the breather.

On resumption, Dinga, Griffins Ligare and Ben Ogolla were all over the court and remained dangerous whenever they got the ball. Rodney Genga got lost leaving Terrorists without any hope of recovering.

In the last quarter, fans finally got what they wanted as ICC responded 100 per cent to their call to reach the century mark. With 26 seconds left, the motivated ICC had two free throws from Dinga, closing the century at 97-44.

Nailed a three-pointer

The crowd behind them, ICC’s Dinga nailed a three-pointer which crossed the century mark at 101-45 as the gymnasium exploded into celebration.

Dinga scored a game-high 31 points which included four three-pointers. Ligare added 23 while Ogolla managed 13 for ICC. Sammy Kiria was lucky to finish the game with 15 points for the students.

Collins Ochieng’ scored a record 30 points as Mennonites completed a double when they defeated ANU 85-64. Still fresh from their Saturday’s 72-67 win over Nairobi Pentecostal Church, Mennonites raced a huge 41-22 half-time lead.

The varsity students only got serious in the third quarter, leading 21-19, but failed to stop their opponents in the other quarters. Edgar Kisali shot 29 points and Yusuf Ramadhan 13 for the losers.

Mediocre show

Flames had their three top players ejected by referee Vincent Kimuyu as they crashed 66-55 to Yana. After a mediocre show against KCA, who hit them 38-25 on Saturday, Yana came back a more organised outfit to lead 32-30 at half-time.

With veterans Samba Mjomba, Everline Nora and Barbara Kithinji falling into foul trouble, little was expected from the students, who only carried home the last quarter 18-17.

Ruth Wasike did Yana proud, scoring 26 points, while Getrude Sagala added 14 and Mjomba shot a game-high 22 points. Debora Chan replied with 14 for Flames.

The top match between champions Kenya Commercial Bank Lions and Tigers of the USIU-A was still in progress by the time we went to press.