Basketball in Africa

The 2014 Gambia Basketball Association national league gets underway at the weekend as Kotu defeated Manjai 40-23 in both sides' opening game at the Independence Stadium in Bakau. Both teams were participating in the domestic league for the first time and it was Kotu who largely dominated the game in one sided duel.

Despite the win by a huge margin, speaking in an interview with Observer Sports after the game, Yankuba Ceesay the head coach of Kotu was impressed with his opponent's performance but unhappy with his own side's display, noting that his players were not paying attention to small details.

"I am impressed by Manjai. They are a new team in the league and they came out and played really hard in the first half but as far as my team is concerned I am not happy with their performance. We won the game by a pretty good margin as expected because we have an experienced team, so am going to expect more from them. If we want to be at the level we want to be we have to pay attention to details and I don't think we payed close attention to details," he pointed out.

For his part, the coach of Manjai, Saikouba Jabang attributed his team's failure to deliver to lack of proper training. He expressed delight on his side's performances adding that the game will serve as a learning curve.

"We lost because some of my players were engaged with their jobs, some go for classes and the lack of training and communication on the court made us lose the game. I say congratulations to Kotu for winning the game because they always train, while for us some of our players will not come for training for two weeks. This being our first game we should feel bad, but we just congratulate Kotu for winning and will endeavour to achieve more as the league progresses," he added.

In other games played over the weekend, Brikama beat the defending champions YMCA 74-67, Serrekunda West narrowly saw off Saints 49-47 while Wallidan were given victory by default after Sport House failed to show up.