NAIROBI, Kenya, Jul 17 – Kenya Basketball Federation (KBF) Women’s Premier League champions Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) recovered from a slow start to burn down Equity Hawks with sizzling performances in three quarters, thrashing them 73-42 at the Nyayo Gymnasium on Sunday.
The holders continued with their unbeaten start to the campaign added on to victory over their closest rivals further underlined their ability to successfully defend their crown.
However, head coach Anthony Ojukwu was keen not to get himself a bit over excited with the victory, their second in a row on the road having beaten University of Nairobi Dynamites 64-30 on Saturday.
“The league is a marathon and this is just one of two matches we have to play against them. It will not be easy but definitely we can pick this performance and improve moving forward,” Ojukwu told Capital Sport.
On his side’s recovery in the last three quarters the coach said; “We saw them lose yesterday and we knew they were going to come out like wounded lions and we expected a tough game. But we remained calm and collected and executed our plan well.”
New signing Jemimah Omondi continued proving her money’s worth sinking 19 points including four out of eight attempts from beyond the arch while Natalie Akinyi had a game high 20 with three out of seven attempts from beyond the arc being successful.
Equity who were stunned by Zetech on Saturday came into Sunday’s tie looking to make a response and they had an explosive start to the game, taking a 12-8 lead after four consecutive three-point shots.
Linet Atieno shot twice from beyond the arch while Hildah Ndegwa and Joy Adongo added one each. The bankers continued to lead and Ojukwu was forced to call a time out with 2:46 left on the clock, Equity enjoying a six point lead at 16-10.
They came back a bit improved and went on a 7-1 scoring run against Equity. The home side however managed to sink two points at the buzzer to lead 19-17 at the end of the first quarter.
When the two sides returned, the tide turned against Equity.
With Ojukwu restoring his strongest starting five with Omondi, Akinyi and the hard-working Selina Okumu coming in, they were totally dominant, scoring 21 against Equity’s 10 to go to the break with a seven point lead, scores standing at 36-29.
Equity further suffered in the third quarter and the injury to their star point guard Ndegwa completely sent their game plan to the bin. They managed only two points from Silalei Shani with KPA sinking 15.
Samba Mjomba, who has been starting coaching duties was brought in to try and use her experience to steer the bankers well, but Omondi did excellent in her guarding duties ensuring the former national team skipper does not bounce her killer passes.
In the fourth quarter, they didn’t have an answer to KPA’s dominance and coach Ojukwu had the prestige of rotating his squad to see out a vital win.
Meanwhile in the early tip off, UoN Dynamites beat Storms 31-16 in a very low scoring match.
