Kenya Basketball 2021 year in review

While there is little to tell in the local Kenya Basketball Federation (KBF) league scene, seeing as the regular season just concluded, the game has enjoyed big wins at the national team level. 

When the year began, the men's national team needed one win in the second round of the FIBA Afrobasket qualification to seal a return to the continental scene, after a 28-year wait. 

As preparations began, the Morans bench was boosted by the presence of an analytics and film-breakdown expert, Australian tactician Liz Mills. At the time she had not been officially unveiled as the head coach with, Cliff Owuor assumed to be incharge until days to the Cameroon qualifiers when the later announced his unavailability. 

Morans had bagged a win against Mozambique in the first round qualification and had their work cut out. However, they did not disappoint, qualifying for the Afrobasket in style as they beat record title holders Angola 74-73 in tightly contested match to book a ticket to the championship scheduled for Rwanda in August 2021. 

Tylor Ongwae was the man of the moment as he sunk the final shot that sealed Kenya's slot to the continental scene on the buzzer after Angola had clawed back from a seven-point Kenya lead, with two minutes to play, to assume the lead at 73-72 with 17 seconds to play.

Knowing well that he would not be time barred, Ongwae, held on to the ball, his eyes fixed on the shot clock and made his move, side stepping Angola's defence for a clutch shot jump just inside the arch. That play has been watched over and over as Kenyans reminisced on the magnitude of what the squad had achieved. 

Morans at the Afrobasket 

A strong and emphatic performance from the men's national basketball team in their final Group C match saw Morans edge Mali 72-66 in a nervy and closely fought contest at the Kigali Arena to secured a quarter final qualification match with their first win in the group stages of the 2021 AfroBasket tournament.

Before getting that first win in 28 years, Morans had twice stumbled in their first two opening matches in Rwanda, losing 88-70 in a spirited fight aganst Ivory Coast before going down again 55-71 against Nigeria who went into the tournament as the first ranked nation in the FIBA African Rankings.

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As fate would have it, the Mali victory was Morans' only win on their return to the Afrobasket, and the second win with coach Mills in charge, as they lost the pre-quaters.  

Afrobasket in numbers 

Kenya was eliminated in the pre-quaters stage after going down to debutants South Sudan 60-58. 

Ongwae was, for another outing, Morans' top performer, his average numbers surpassing all his teammates'. The Bakken Bears' forward averaged 14.5 points per game with a 12.5 efficiency to top the charts for Morans. 

Albert Odero, making his debut for the national team, and Ariel Okall completed the top three performances in efficiency and points, the former averaging 14.0 points per game and 11.3 in efficiency. Okall averaged 6.3 on points and 8.5 efficiency per match.

In Morans first match against finalists Cote d'Ivoire Ongwae led in points both for the Morans and in the match at 25 as Matt Costello bagged 20 to help his side defeat Morans 88-70 with a final quarter charge for points. Tom Wamukota led the rebounding charts with 11 in the game. 

In the second match against Nigeria, Odero led on points and rebounds managing 23 and eight respectively. Ongwae picked a double-double in Morans' 72-66 win against Mali with 16 points and 11 rebounds, also dominating on assists with seven. 

Resilient Morans grab first AfroBasket win in 28 years

In the qualifier to the quarters against South Sudan, Odero gave another good performance as Morans came from a 20-point deficit to lose by a basket. He scored 18 points but it was not enough to hand morans the win.

Okall came second on the Morans' list of top rebounder at 6.5 rebounds per game as Ongwae led 7.5. Wamukota was third with 5.3. Ongwae, James Situma and Victor Bosire led the assists chart for Morans at 4.5 assists per game, 3.0 and 1.5 respectively. 

Of the three top performer Okall was on the floor for the least number of minutes, averaging 20 mins having played 31.40 minutes against South Sudan, 14.11 against Mali, 16.38 against Nigeria 17.35 against Cote d'Ivoire.  

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None of the Kenyan players made it to the top performer's award list. However, coach Mills, who became the first woman to coach at AfroBasket, was recognised alongside three other players for their contribution to the game of basketball. The other three are Eduardo Mingas, Stephane Konate and Slimante Radhouane (Tunisia).

Kenya Lionesses 

The women's national basketball side also had their big moment, lifting the FIBA Africa Zone Five Women's title. 

Hosted in Kigali in July, the George Mayienga-coached side recovered from a poor start to beat Egypt, for the first time in history, in a 99-83 score line to lift the title and book a back-to-back ticket to the Women's Afrobasket.

Victoria Reynolds, making her debut for Lionesses, was named the competition's Most Valuable Player (MVP) and the best small forward as Felmas Koranga picked the power forward accolade. 

Lionesses exit Afrobasket stage with lessons

At the Afrobasket, hosted in September, the Lionesses, just like their male counterpart crashed out of the competition in the pre-quaters, going down 72-50. 

Pooled alongside hosts Cameroon and Cape Verde in the group stage, Mayienga's charges managed one win, falling 74-50 to the hosts before picking a hard-fought 61-58 victory over the islanders.

 Club competitions

Both women's league champions Equity Hawks and rivals Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) participated in the FIBA Africa Zone Five Women's Club Championship held in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania with the latter emerging victorious in the five-team round robin tournament. Both sides will be representing the country in the Africa Women's Club Championships next year.

BAL 

Ulinzi Warriors, the Kenyan representatives to this year's Basketball Africa League (BAL) crashed out of the elite 16 qualifiers hosted in Johannesburg without a win to miss out on a chance to feature in the second edition of the NBA-run African competition

 Elections

Away from the court, KBF conducted its general elections in January with long-serving chairperson Paul Otula re-elected on 57 votes against his sole challenger Cynthia Mumbo's 45. The national office experienced little changes as the treasurer's position saw Peter Orero retain his position while Ambrose Kisoi who was serving as the assistant Secretary General under Vitalis Gode was elected the Secretary General.

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