Basketball in Africa

BY DANN O'WERRE .
AN epic battle is on the cards this weekend as reigning champions Co-operative Bank of Kenya tackle arch rivals KCB Lions. Going by what transpired in last year’s finals between the two giants where chaos reigned and Co-op were declared the winners, fans cant wait for this one.


On their way to the finals, Co-op Bank way laid Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) 2-0—taking Game One 64-61 in Mombasa and shutting the porters out of the post season with a stunning display winning Game Two 82-62 in Nairobi. Lions on the other hand, reached the finals by playing only in the quarter finals, where they beat Thunder 2-0. But their semi finals tie against Ulinzi Warriors was a non-starter as the soldiers were called on duty.
The ladies finals is already on with KPA leading Eagle Wings 1-0 having posted a 53-46 in Mombasa on Saturday. The dock women will travel to Nairobi for Game Two and possibly Game Three. In their match against KPA, the champions were up close 14-13 in the second quarter before breezing away 20-14 in the third. They took the last quarter 25-20.
Abel Nson led the winners scoring tally with 15 points while Peter Kiganya posted another 14 points. But it was the porters who had a game high of 18 points from Martin Gitonga and 13 from Dan Ocholla. University of Nairobi “Terrorists” shut out Nairobi Aviation College (NAC) 52-42 in the lower division semis. The campus lads rallied behind Billy Oketch’s 14 points while Ben Oluoch pepped the losers with 12. Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) dismissed Parklands Baptist 63-56 in a classification game.