Flames, Twende crowned Red Bull Half court tournament

USIU Flames and Twende were crowned winners of the Nairobi qualifiers of the Red Bull Half Court tournament that was played at the USIU grounds.

The teams will join other regional winners at the National finals of the competition on 1 June at Uhuru Gardens.

The tournament that was hosted at the USIU grounds. A total of 28 teams registered for the competition to fight for a slot to represent the country in the world finals that will be held in New York, US.

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The ladies’ winners were decided on a round robin basis with team Noga failing to turn up for the competition this year due to the ongoing local league.

Flames proved to be too strong to be matched by the participating teams as they won all their matches leading by nine points.

Rim Culture who emerged second lost one game to the flames by 14-4 making the second team that will join the Flames in the national finals.

The international experience of the Flames came into play in the matches and was evident as they outscored their competitors heavily in the competition with their lowest score being 12 points against the Storms who only managed 6 past them.

Speaking after the competition, Flames captain Angelina Aluet revealed that they had trained well for the competition knowing very well that the level of competition was going to be very high.

“We did our best in training to prepare for this game and I am sure the score speaks for itself on how prepared well for this competition. We are grateful to Red Bull for this competition that seeks to involve more women in Basketball," she offered.

The men’s game had familiar names challenging for the top spot notably Twende, Avengers, Kabals, and Flamers.

Twende cruised easily through their group stages to meet their first worthy competitor at the quarter in Four Cousins.

The Four Cousins became resolute in their defense answering everything Twende threw at them, bowing out with their heads high with a score of 18-14.

In the other match played, Nexus and Brackets also treated fans at the USIU grounds to another spectacle of the quarter-finals with time being the savor as Brackets snatched a 13-12 win to secure a tie with the beetles who had managed to snuff out the DD Ballers 10-6.

Brackets and Beetles played an open game whose defense was purely on how many more each team could score. Three-pointers seemed to be the strategy for both teams before the Beetles snatched a 14-12 win.

Twende started the final slowly against the Flamers abit weary of their expertise in long drives.

The first two minutes played out to a lot of technical fouls from both ends. However, Twende picked pace as the game continued with the scores with a minute to spare in the game at 11-4.

From here onwards they managed the game confidently with the final scores reading 12-5.

Speaking after the game, George Omondi a member of Team Twende attributed their win to their experience in the competition.

“We knew we were favorites for this competition because most of us had represented the country in international competitions but we had to watch the semis well to know how to play well because 3 on 3 is a tough competition," Omondi offered.

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Joseph Amoko the fixtures secretary for the Kenya Basketball Federation commended the players for the fantastic talent that they had displayed in the competition.

He added that the rains and ongoing league games had impacted the turnout in the competition but that in no way reduced the competitiveness of the teams present in the tournament.

He revealed plans to have the games indoors from next year to increase the turnout of the teams, thus growing the competition further.

At the side-lines of the tournament, Red Bull launched a consumer activation campaign to celebrate the highest scoring players in the competition.

In the campaign, the top scoring players in the competition will get a chance to be trained by legendary NBA and WNBA shooting coach Lethal Shooter who will be in the country on the 30 May to conduct a basketball clinic.