NAIROBI, Kenya, Oct 1 – Kenya Ports Authority have earned a date against Egypt’s Alexandria Sports Club in Saturday’s final at the Africa Zone Five Women’s Basketball Championships after bouncing back from a slow start to beat APR of Rwanda 61-39 in the semis on Friday.
The Kenyan champions had trailed APR by a basket at halftime, but they came back from the break breathing fire to win the game and progress to a third consecutive final, in line to defend their crown.
The return of skipper Natalie Akinyi who had missed the last two matches with injury spurred the dockers on, with the point guard bagging a game high 17 points and seven assists. Jemimah Omondi also put up a good performance with nine points, four steals and four rebounds.
“We started very slow with a few mistakes here and there, but we managed to bounce back especially because we played some aggressive defense. It was a good response from the girls,” said KPA coach Anthony Ojukwu.
KPA had a slow start and trailed by three points at the end of the first quarter, scores at 14-11. They were behind by two points at half time with scores standing at 26-24, having outscored the Rwandese by half a basket in the second quarter.
Coach Ojukwu read the riot act at halftime and the team came back a different side in the second half, where they turned the tables. They were even more devastating in the final quarter where they outscored APR by 18 points, to set a commanding lead and stomp into the final.
They will take on Alexandria Sports Club (ASC) of Egypt in the final, with the latter having scoured through with a 49-45 win over another Rwandese side REG in the other semi final.
Equity meanwhile bounced back from their disappointing quarter final loss with a 70-44 thrashing of Burundi’s Young Sisters in a classification match.