Kenya Morans fall to DRC in WCQ opener

Without the services of a centre player owing to the absence of Fidel Okoth who arrived in Dakar, from Oman, late and could not suit up for Kenya Morans, the national men's team suffered immensely off the glass to go down 56-66 in their opener. 

The Cliff Owuor-led side is currently in Senegal where Kenya is making her debut in the FIBA Africa World Cup qualifiers and faced the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in the Group D opener at the Dakar Arena. 

Up against the AfroCAN gold medalists, the Kenyans held their own to trail by half a basket at the end of the first quarter with the score reading 17-18. 

The Congolese side who had the advantage in height and stature on the floor bullied their way, especially on rebounds, to scoring 16 points against the East Africans' nine to head to the break leading by eight points. 

Morans played better defense in the second half, restricting DRC to 13 points and scoring 11 in the third quarter before playing for a 19 all points draw in the final quarter for the ten point difference. 

In addition to having a thinner bench in the absence of Okoth and Ariel Okall, Morans suffered on the rebounding department as DRC collected 54 against Kenya's 29 on both ends of the court. 

Griffin Ligare led the scoring at 12 points off of 19.24 minutes on the floor, the only Kenyan player to hit double digits on points. Joel Awich contributed eight while Valentine Nyakinda and Albert Odero scores seven each.

Kenya shift their focus to Egypt on Saturday at 3 pm as the two nations renew rivalry with the latter looking to avenge their loss in the FIBA Africa Zone Five championship in 2019 where Morans beat them to book a place in the inaugural AfroCAN championship.