Ojukwu focusing on positives after KPA's BAL exit

Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) are out of contention for the Basketball Africa League (BAL) slot at the ongoing qualifiers after finishing third in their pool without a win. 

Head coach Antony Ojukwu, however, has elected to focus on the positives saying that more investment is need for Kenyan teams to compete at that level. 

"It was a good outing for the team. A lot of lessons have been learned by both the technical bench and the players. The experience gained is also immeasurable. 

We will be back on this stage again and to go past this level to BAL proper, we will need to be better prepared. First we have to continue dominating the local league so we can get another chance to be here," offered Ojukwu. 

In their first match of group A Ojukwu's charges went down 72-43 to Burundi's Urunani in what was a below-par performance for the dockers as they were restricted to five and eight points in the first and second quarter respectively. 

They recovered in the second quarter for 14 and 16 points but the damage had already been done by the Burundians who kept a steady flow of 18 points in all the four quarters. 

Against host Cape Town Tigers, KPA had a great start going 26-19 ahead in the first quarter but the hosts recovered for 12-22, 23-34 and 11-21 to win the match 72-96 and deny the dockers a chance to proceed to the knock-out stage where the top three teams book a ticket to BAL. 

KPA's game against the NBA Academy was inconsequential for the BAL qualifiers as the latter are not ranked. Even then, the youngsters won 84-69 to subject the Mombasa-based side to their third defeat in Johannesburg. 

"Players need to stay together and practise together for the longest time. It will be hard to get the results we want unless teams train as a unit for long. This is what I gathered from fellow coaches here and I expect the same to be implemented back home," Ojukwu continued. 

The semi finals are scheduled for Saturday 26 November with group A leaders Urunani facing off with Uganda's City Oilers while Cape Town Tigers clash with Ferroviario Beira in the other semi.