NAIROBI, Kenya, Nov 14 – Another third quarter implosion saw Kenya Ports Authority’s (KPA) dream of clinching the Women’s Basketball League Africa Zone Five qualification trophy go up in smoke as they suffered a 62-45 semi-final defeat at the hands of Rwanda Energy Group (REG) at the Nyayo Gymnasium on Friday night.
A win would have not only earned them a place in Saturday night’s final, but also an assured ticket of playing at the WBAL in Egypt next month. However, they will now have to fight for a possible wild card ticket in the third place match against Burundi’s Les Hippos.
Just as they did against APR in Thursday’s final group match, the dockers put their feet off the gas pedal in the third quarter, and allowed their opponents of the day to stretch off.
“This is one of the games where you take it in as a hard luck loss. It was a bad loss; we take it in as players. These are those games you don’t have a pinpoint on what exactly happened. We started well in the first quarter, but the third quarter went haywire. Something went wrong and really went wrong,” a dejected Betty Kananu said after the match.
She added; “It was a bit hard to create today. Games happen like that but we will rest, put our legs up and be energized for tomorrow. The issues with the third quarter, we will have to look inwards as players and the coaches too to know what we can do to improve and do better.”
REG seemed to have keenly studied KPA’s plays and had mastered a way of shutting out their best offensive players; Kananu, Mercy Wanyama and Iffy Okoro. Okoro would later limp off with injury while point guard Aminata Semassekou who has been brilliantly running the floor for the dockers would follow suite in the third quarter.
Aminata Ly, the lanky Senegalese who had been the anchor of their offense at the edge of the arch was completely shut out, while Kananu’s free flowing three’s didn’t sink as well as she would have expected.
A good start saw KPA lead the first quarter 16-9, but REG clawed back to lead by half a basket at halftime, scores at 33-32. In the third quarter, things fell apart for the home girls. They only managed a paltry six points with REG scoring 23, most coming from turnovers.
Kayana Traylor turned into beast mode with an 18-point performance and ran the floor with precision for the Rwandese girls. Chantal Kiyobe, who left KPA for REG at the end of the season also chalked double digits with 11 points as did Kristina King who completed it off with a double double of 10 points and 16 rebounds. Twelve of those rebounds were on the defensive board.
“We knew KPA was a tough team and we knew we had to be at our best today. We did our homework well and everyone played their part. We shared the ball really well and played for each other. The motivation was to get the automatic ticket to the WBLA and now, we have to remain focused to win the title which will give us a mental boost going to Egypt,” Traylor told Capital Sports after the match.
Saturday’s final will be an all-Rwandese affair with REG taking on APR. The defending champions easily sailed to the final after edging out Burundi’s Les Hippos 82-61 in the first semi-final.
Italee Lucas and Yacine Diop were unstoppable with 21 and 20 points respectively. Destiny Philoxy had 15 while Assouma Uwizeye added 11 more.
“We are really delighted to be in the final and to earn a ticket to the WBLA. Our ticket is to defend our trophy and from the word go, that was all we targeted,” Uwizeye said after the match.
KPA and Les Hippos will face off in the third place play-off to determine the last ticket to the WBLA with FIBA confirming that Zone Five will once again get a wild card.
