KPA teams enter finals

Kenya Ports Authority men and women’s teams romped into the respective finals of the basketball Premier League in emphatic fashion over the weekend.

And in Nairobi, Strathmore Blades shocked former champions Ulinzi Warriors 73-53 in Game Four at the varsity court to win their semi finals play-offs series 3-1 for a historic first qualification to the final.

The students, who had narrowly lost Game One recovered to win Game two and three to take a 2-1 lead ahead of Sunday’s match which saw them teach Ulinzi some basketball lessons.

KPA men crushed Co-operative Bank 3-0 in their best-of-five semi-final play-offs while KPA women registered a similar dominant win over United States International University in the women’s semis.

The third matches were played at KPA Hall Makande in Mombasa on Saturday.

KPA men got walkovers in the first two games after Co-op Bank failed to honour the fixtures in Nairobi  before seeing  off the bankers 71-58 in the third game in Mombasa.

KPA women comfortably best the varsity students in all the three matches played in Nairobi  and Mombasa.

At the KPA Hall on Saturday, the women dockers whipped USIU 91-37  after leading  52-17  at the break  with shooting guard Georgia Adhiambo  proving to be the destroyer in chief against her former classmates.

After opening the scores with a three pointer, Adhiambo and Betty Kananu  continued nailing the long range shots as if it was a contest with the dockers to lead 26-12  at the end of the first quarter.
They maintained the healthy lead in the second quarter out-scoring USIU 26-05.

USIU, who had former St Brigid’s Kiminini school forward Stella Kiberenge, made a Premiership debut with a stellar performance came to the third quarter rejuvenated, out-scored just 16-12.

KPA though hit another gear in the last quarter to close out the match.

Adhiambo scored a game high 21 points while Kananu and Seline Okumu had 18 points each. Melisa Ogolla, daughter of former Kenya  and Gor Mahia stopper John “Bobby” Ogolla led USIU  with 17 points while Kiberenge had 10.

“We have been improving by the day since the season began after we lost several players last season but  things seems to be changing for the better with the new students slowly putting their acts together,” USIU coach George Mayienga said after the match.

His KPA counterpart Anthony Ojukwu  said: “The waiting has been long for us and we must do everything possible to reclaim the title we last won five years ago as we seek to once again stamp our authority in the local league.”

In a tough men’s encounter, KPA led 20-10  in the first quarter  but were out-scored 10-15  in the second quarter for a 35-25 half time lead as Co-op Bank struggled to erase the 2-0 deficit.

The second half was equally balanced