Basketball in Africa

Bricks are just a step into the Kati Scales Southern Zone Basketball League (Sozobal) title defence after winning against Crazy Warriors 62-59 and 78-60 during the play-offs at the Blantyre Youth Centre (BYC) on Sunday.
However, their rivals Magang’a, tied on both points and aggregate with Lox360, will have to get into an extra decisive match to qualify for the finals. Magang’a beat Lox360 69-57, but Lox360 retaliated with a 96-84 triumph in the second game.
According to Sozobal general secretary, Banthari Banda, the semi-final game between Magang’a and Lox360 will be played after the Basketball Association of Malawi (Basmal) All-Stars National Championships in Mzuzu on November 3.
But Banda said the losing team in this encounter will face Crazy Warriors in a third-place encounter as the best three teams will make it into the National Basketball Championships at the end of this end.
Bricks, Lox360, Magang’a and Crazy Warriors could automatically be the champions, runners-up, third-placed and fourth placed teams in the 11-team league after the completion of the second-round matches a fortnight ago, but Sozobal revived the play-offs format to make the contest more competitive.
At the end of the second round, Bricks topped the table with 34 points from 19 games whereas Lox360, Magang’a and Crazy Warriors completed their games with 32, 30 and 24 points respectively.