NAIROBI, Kenya, Jun 4 – Despite picking an easy 75-53 win over University of Nairobi’s Terror in Game one of their Kenyan Basketball League play-offs, Nairobi City Thunder coach Brad Ibs was not impressed with their display.
Ibs said he wasn’t satisfied with their defensive play especially in the first quarter, and has urged his charges to improve ahead of Game Two this Saturday.
“I wasn’t happy with the way we played defense. We gave out easy drives to the basket and our rotations weren’t perfect. This is something we will work on ahead of the second game. Offensively we did fine, though we could have scored more missed easy shots that guys usually make,” the American tactician said after the game.
Terror had a fast start to the game in the opening quarter, but fizzled out as the game progressed with Thunder’s talent and experience easily telling.
Thunder looking to continue dominance
Thunder finished the season unbeaten, and are looking to make history by replicating the same run in the play-offs to clinch the league title.
In game one of the quarter finals, Coach Ibs even had the prestige of resting his key players. Faheem Juma, Albert Odero and James Mwangi all watched from the sidelines, with the tactician saying they were recovering from injury.
“We just want to get the guys healthy so we have given them a rest and it is also a good opportunity for the others to get some good playing time because we might need it as we progress in the play-offs. Okall (Ariel) too had an injury and we just need to be careful. I think we have enough firepower to get through the first round,” noted the coach.
Top dawgs sparingly used
Okall, Ariel Ortega, Garang Ding, and skipper Griffin Ligare were all just sparingly used in the clash against the University students as the likes of Moses Alliel, Dismas Mbaka and Fidel Okoth all got more running time in the game.
Terror had a fired up start to the game and the two sides tied 18-ups at the end of the first quarter.
But, powered on by the powrful Okoth on both rims, Thunder outscored Terror by 14 points to lead 42-28 at halftime, the introduction of Okall turning the game around for them. They didn’t bat an eyelid from then on till the end to win by slightly over 20 points.
Okoth, Ligare and Okall registered double digit points, Okall picking a game high 15 points while the former each had 13.
