Basketball in Africa

May 13, 2014

Thunder registered their first win of the season over the weekend beating Mennonite 70-57 in a national classic league match played at the Nyayo National Stadium gymnasium.
The last season’s quarter finalists have found the going tough this year, forfeiting the opening three matches. The win on Saturday came as a relief.
Griffin Ligare led the scores for Thunder with 21 points while Felix Odhiambo scored 24 for Mennonite.
It was a dominant show for the Faustin Mgendi side after leading 32-26 at the breather. Mennonite won the first quarter 14-13 with Thunder taking the second 19-12.
The third quarter was Thunder’s share winning 25-18 before the fourth tied at 13-13. Champions Co-operative Bank kept their winning streak intact with a 79-48 victory over Equity Bank.
Co-op took command of the game with a 41-13 halftime lead and had James Mwangi scoring 19 points.
Enock Ogedi scored 13 for Equity. It was, however, business unusual for Lions who lost their fourth straight match going down 77-64 to a strong Kenya Airports Authority, KAA on Saturday.
Lions fall, Ulinzi win
Lions squandered a 35-30-half time lead after scoring 32-12 in the first quarter. Complacency creeped in, in the second quarter as Lions lost 18-3 to give KAA the advantage.
KAA won the third quarter 19-13 to take a one-point lead at the start of the fourth quarter. They eventually broke away and won the last quarter 28-16.
Elphas Mwema scored 14 points for KAA while Victor Ochieng had 15 for Lions. Blazers had a bad outing losing two straight matches.
The first loss was 72-38 at the hands of Nairobi Aviation College. Aviation recorded a comeback win overturning Blazers’ 38-35-halftime lead helped by 18 points from Job Byron. Joseph Kosgei scored 12 for Blazers.
Mennonite who scored a slim 67-63 win inflicted their second loss. Ulinzi Warriors extended their unbeaten run with a 75-60 win over KAA on Sunday. Erick Mutoro scored 15 points for the soldiers while Mark Ouko had 13 for KAA.
Ulinzi won all quarters 12-10, 13-9, 23-15 and 27-26 respectively. Africa Nazarene University was the biggest loser in division one after failing to show up for their two matches. As a result, Zetech College and Parklands Baptist were awarded 20-0 walkovers.
Umoja reaped heavily from the weekend action winning 64-37 against MKU Eldonett and 74-32 over World Hope.
Weekend Results: Saturday- Zetech College 20 ANU 0, Little Prince 52 Trailblazers 46, Dankind Academy 67 Lakeside 46, Umoja 64 MKU Eldonetts 37, KAA 77 Lions 64, Thunder 70 Mennonite 57, Nairobi Aviation College 72 Blazers 38; Sunday- Parklands Baptist 20 ANU 0, World Hope 32 Umoja 74, Zetech College 56 Barclays Bank 48, Dankind Academy 76 MKU Eldonetts 45, Little Prince 43 Lakeside 48, KAA 60 Ulinzi Warriors 75, Mennonite 67 Blazers 63, Equity Bank 48 Co-op Bank 79.