07 July 2012
KENYA : KPA silence Eagle Wings at home
By BRIAN AYIEKO
Kenya Basketball women’s defending champions Eagle Wings Basketball team was on the receiving end on Friday night playing second fiddle to 2010 champions KPA in a lively Friday Night basketball encounter at the Nyayo gymnasium.KPA won the match 50-66.
Having gone unbeaten since the start of the season, Eagle Wings looked the favorites considering their top scoring form in the recent past. However, on Friday the reigning champions looked disjointed as they allowed their hot rivals rip them apart especially in the first two quarters.
Samba Mjomba attributed the loss to lack of team unity since they have not had the time to train together as a unit owing to their busy schedules.
“Most of our players work in different places and it has been very hard for us to get a consistent training schedule. We had a bad outing tonight and we purely attribute it to lack of our usual team work.” She said.
It started in the first quarter with KPA taking a single point lead of 12-13 and they never looked back improving on the scoreline to post 7-23 in the second quarter as they led the champions 19-36 by half time
With such a heavy scoreline and the form of Yvonne Akinyi who scored 16 points for her Coastal team, it proved difficult for Eagle Wings to catch up despite their hard work in the final two quarters. The champions were determined to recover and they did so by dominating the 3rd quarter with a 16- 13 points’ win as Samba Mjomba scored the only 3 pointer in the quarter.
In a more physical 4th quarter that saw KPA’s Salma ‘Garang’ Akinyi stand out in securing the defensive rebounds, the two teams fought it out hard but KPA proved why they are a team to watch in the title race as they beat Eagle Wings by a basket to put the points at 15 –17 and ensured that they got the maximum 2 points from the match.
Yvonne Akinyi was the visitors’ top scorer with 16 points followed by Salma who gave her side 12 points and also securing 10 rebounds the highest in the match. Caroline Mureji and Suleiman Mwajuma gave their side 10 and 8 points respectively.
The win ensured that KPA remain unbeaten after 3 matches and giving Eagle Wings their first defeat after 6 matches.
Having gone unbeaten since the start of the season, Eagle Wings looked the favorites considering their top scoring form in the recent past. However, on Friday the reigning champions looked disjointed as they allowed their hot rivals rip them apart especially in the first two quarters.
Samba Mjomba attributed the loss to lack of team unity since they have not had the time to train together as a unit owing to their busy schedules.
“Most of our players work in different places and it has been very hard for us to get a consistent training schedule. We had a bad outing tonight and we purely attribute it to lack of our usual team work.” She said.
It started in the first quarter with KPA taking a single point lead of 12-13 and they never looked back improving on the scoreline to post 7-23 in the second quarter as they led the champions 19-36 by half time
With such a heavy scoreline and the form of Yvonne Akinyi who scored 16 points for her Coastal team, it proved difficult for Eagle Wings to catch up despite their hard work in the final two quarters. The champions were determined to recover and they did so by dominating the 3rd quarter with a 16- 13 points’ win as Samba Mjomba scored the only 3 pointer in the quarter.
In a more physical 4th quarter that saw KPA’s Salma ‘Garang’ Akinyi stand out in securing the defensive rebounds, the two teams fought it out hard but KPA proved why they are a team to watch in the title race as they beat Eagle Wings by a basket to put the points at 15 –17 and ensured that they got the maximum 2 points from the match.
Yvonne Akinyi was the visitors’ top scorer with 16 points followed by Salma who gave her side 12 points and also securing 10 rebounds the highest in the match. Caroline Mureji and Suleiman Mwajuma gave their side 10 and 8 points respectively.
The win ensured that KPA remain unbeaten after 3 matches and giving Eagle Wings their first defeat after 6 matches.
# posted by afrbk : 12:48
