KPA hold off Blades to retain title
KPA men's team celebrate with National Classic Basketball league trophy after they beat Strathmore University Blades 61-53 at the Makande Hall on February 25, 2018. PHOTO | LABAN WALLOGA |
What you need to know:
- Kenya Ports Authority put up a spirited fight to beat stubborn Blades 61-53 to close out the finals play-offs series 3-1 and retain the men’s Premier League title at the KPA Makande Hall in Mombasa on Sunday.
- The championship win however did no come easy for the dockers who encountered stiff resistance from Blades, composed of Strathmore University students.
- KPA had taken a 2-0 lead in Nairobi in the best-of-five final play-off series only to get stung by the students 65-64 in Mombasa in game three on Saturday.
Kenya Ports Authority put up a spirited fight to beat stubborn Blades 61-53 to close out the finals play-offs series 3-1 and retain the men’s Premier League title at the KPA Makande Hall in Mombasa Sunday.
The championship win however did no come easy for the dockers who encountered stiff resistance from Blades, composed of Strathmore University students.
KPA had taken a 2-0 lead in Nairobi in the best-of-five finals play-off series only to get stung by the students 65-64 in Mombasa in game three on Saturday.
The tense Game four was evenly contested and with three minutes to go was still anybody’s game.
The students started yesterday’s game with the same intensity as in their last match to lead KPA 16-13 in the first quarter. They tiede 6-6 in quarter two for 22-19 Blades lead at half time with shooting guard George Okoth, who produced a man of the match performance, in the thick of things.
Blades, who had fair share of the crowd urging them on out scored KPA 18-15 in the third quarter before they started running out of in the fourth quarter.
KPA rallied with their offence that had Evans Leting, who was voted Most Valuable Player of the series, Tobias Odumbe and Airel Okal proving to be the destroyers in chief. The dominated the last quarter 24-16 to win the match.
“The game was tough but I had a plan for it. I knew Blades could not win back-to-back games after using a lot of energy in yesterday’s game.
“My plan was therefore to make them tire in the first and second quarters before introducing faster players in the third and fourth, which worked perfectly well,” KPA coach Sammy Kiki.
Blades coach Tony Ochieng said he was happy reaching the finals for the first time ever and praised his boys for the excellent display in the series which saw them avoid being swept.
“Very proud, It has been a long journey. We have been able to achieve our main target. It is our first finals with a young team - very young boys fresh from school and must thank them for such a great performance.”
He said experience proved the difference in the finals.
