Deflated EMYBA plotting revival

Kenya Basketball Federation (KBF) 2019 men’s league semi-finalists Embakasi Youth Basketball Association (EMYBA) are looking to rise from their 77-68 slip up against former champions Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) to keep their dream of reaching their first-ever premier league final alive.

In their season-opening fixture, the Embakasi- based side let a four-point lead in the first quarter slip as they went on to lose by nine points to the Sammy Kiki-coached KPA. Abel Nson’s men had dominated in the first quarter, scoring 14 against KPA’s 10 but allowed KPA to claw back for a 22-13 outcome in the second quarter, the dockers assuming a five-point lead going to the breather.

The second half of the match was closely fought, as Kiki’s charges took care of business scoring 23-19 and 22-22 for the win. EMYBA’s Eugene Adera helplessly watched as his game-high 31 points went down the drain. His high score coupled with skipper Thomas Kioko’s 20 points were not enough to hand their side what would have been an upset and a crucial win as the season tips off.  Nick Ogol top-scored for KPA at 16 while Lenox Wanje added 15 of his own.

“Our game was not bad, we tried to play well. However, we have not been training as a unit and that showed as we were unable to hold on to the lead. One positive from the loss is that our shots were falling and that is one less thing to worry about. Our defensive rebounds were poor and we are yet to get the team rhythm going. We will work on that before the next fixture and we should be home and dry,” said EMYBA captain Kioko.

 Meanwhile, despite the win, their second in the weekend having seen off Kenya College of Accountancy-University (KCA-U) in another weekend match, KPA head coach Kiki says his charges have work to do especially in defence. 

“We struggled with defense in the first and second quarter but the moment we started playing zone we were able to stop EMYBA’s strong players, am happy with the way players came very strong in the second half, they followed instructions well and we were able to pick that crucial win,” said Kiki.