Basketball: Thunder, Ulinzi establish themselves as front-runners

Kenya Basketball Federation (KBF) leagues continued on the weekend with title hopefuls Nairobi City Thunder and Ulinzi Warriors maintaining their respective unbeaten runs in the men's league.

Under the tutelage of Brad Ibs Thomas, Thunder continued to dominate, this weekend picking their sixth victory in as many matches in a 74-56 outcome against Eldonets Platinum.

This was the first time Ibs' charges did not hit the 90 mark on points but the tactician maintains that there is no cause for worry. 

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“We keep getting better with each game and we are still in a learning process where we are trying to solidify our identity but I am impressed with the game so far,” the Thunder tactician offered.

Asked what it means for the team to fail in their 90+ run against the visiting Eldonets, Ibs admits his side’s shooting, both behind the arc and on the free-throw line, was not the best this weekend.

“If we had done even half of what we have been doing in shooting the story would be different but that is part of basketball. We are likely to have many more of such matches so we have to find more ways of winning,” the tactician added.

On their part, Ulinzi picked back-to-back victories against the University of Nairobi (UoN) Terror (54-33) and Kenyatta University (K.U) Pirates (62-40) on Friday and Saturday respectively.

“We are starting slow in our matches and growing into the game but that is a bad trend but we will work on it in training. We need to also do better offensively and take our free throws more seriously. We still have work to do to get where we want to be,” Ulinzi head coach Bernard Mufutu offered.

Strathmore Blades, who headed to the weekend in second place after six matches lost in their seventh outing in a 59-38 outcome against Terror but are third after seven matches on 10 points.

Thunder top the standings with 12 points from six matches, Ulizni second on 10 points from 5 matches.

Meanwhile, last season's runners-up, Equity Dumas seem to have snapped out of their less-than-impressive start to the season as they picked their second win in four matches, routing ANU Wolfpacks 67-52.

In the women's top-tier league, JKUAT Lynx got the better of visiting Eldonets in a 46-43 outcome. This was the second victory of the weekend for the former as they had earlier played to a 57-21 victory over K.U Oryx.

Strathmore Swords humiliated fellow varsity side Oryx 81-07, subjecting the Caleb Osewe-led side to their second defeat of the weekend.

Elsewhere, last season's runners-up Zetech Sparks had an easy 85-15 victory over Eldonets, making it two wins in a row.