L. MathekaSnipers sail through to KBF playoff semis
Reading Time: 2min | Sun. 23.04.23. | 20:22
A win in the best-of-five series sees them gain promotion to the top-tier league.
Ancet Wafula-coached Snipers became the first team in the Kenya Basketball Federation (KDF) team to qualify for the semis of the ongoing 2022/23 season playoffs after sweeping ‘siblings’ Moi Airbase (MAB) 2-0 in the best-of-three quarters.
Coming into the series, Snippers were the underdog as they had lost to their fellow military men in both the home and away matches in the KBF division one regular league, but were ranked higher.
In game one played on Saturday 22 April night, Wafula’s charges overcame a slow start to run rings around the Mike Tanui-coached men and pick a 76-56 (11-07, 27-13, 20-13, 18-22) victory and subsequently, lead 1-0.
Tanui had no time to make amends as game two was scheduled for Sunday 23 April from 8am and despite a good start where they went 21-16 ahead in the first quarter, Snipers played an impressive second and fourth quarters for a 72-89 (21-16, 14-29,22-20,15-24) win.
“We used the underdog (in relation to MAB) tag to our advantage in this playoff pairing. Having lost to them home and away, they were confident but we had done our homework. We went back to the regular league matches and identified the problematic areas and worked on them. We also got to identify a few weaknesses on their part which we exploited in this series for the win,” offered Wafula.
The military side is looking to break the semis jinx and make it to the final of the playoff, a move that would see them gain promotion to the premier league, joining their senior brothers Ulinzi Warriors in the top tier.
Scheduled to play Strathmore Blades 2 who swept Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) Straycats, Wafula maintains that they have what it takes to go all the way to the final.
“We have lost several semifinal match-ups but we have to work on our mental toughness and ahead of this year’s series. We lost to Strathmore in the first leg but won the repeat encounter and that goes to show it will be a close encounter. We will be ready,” Wafula offered.
