USIU Flames, Team Twende bag world final slots as Red Bull Half Court tournament concludes

United States International University (USIU) Flames and Team Twende secure a slot to represent Kenya at the Red Bull Half Court world Finals that will be held in New York in October 2024.

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

The competition was organized in partnership with Kenya Basketball Federation and Red Bull Kenya and was aimed at identifying and improving the next talent of basketball in Kenya.

The tournament brought together qualified teams from Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu and Eldoret who were fighting for a slot to represent the country in the World finals that will be held in New York, US.

This will be the third time Kenya will be represented in the world finals after making a debut in 2022 and a second consecutive appearance in 2023.

Flames proved to be too strong for Team Amazon by beating them 13-9 in the semi-finals to book a slot in the finals with Team Hookies. The team left nothing to chance after blazing and scorching the hopes of their opponents Team Hookies in a tightly contest 14-9 win.

In the men’s final, Team Twende had to dig deep in their experience tank to outclass team Hookies 23-10 in a nail-biting fixture that had the fans on the edges of their seats.

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Reflecting on the performance of their team, Fridah Yakobo, Flames team captain commended teams in the competition for showing incredible will to win in the competition.

"The level of competition was very high which underscores the impact of the Red Bull Half Court tournament. Playing in this competition has given me more exposure by putting me against the best players in Kenya. I can't wait to play against some of the best players in the world at the world Finals," she said.

On his part, Hilmi Ali, KBF vice president lauded the tournament for the impact it had in identifying the next generation of basketball in the country.

“We have seen new faces in the competition but we are impressed by the show of talent in display especially with teams from Eldoret and other towns. We are beginning to see the impact of the Half Court tournament especially in the ladies participating in the competition. I believe this is just the beginning of the journey on improving the quality of Basketball in Kenya," he said.

Reflecting on how tough the competition has become in the tournament since its inception George Daryl, captain of Team Twende commended their opponents for fair play and good competition spirit.

“We were really against some of the most experienced teams and players in the competition which means the quality of the game was very high. Despite all that we had to stick to our game plan to win the final tough game. I am grateful to Red Bull for organizing this competition it is definitely a good avenue for Basketball growth," he said.

This year’s edition of the competition saw a series of activities and changes to the tournament to make it more engaging and better. This included the launch of a consumer activation to award the player with the highest score in the competition.

The winner of this campaign got an opportunity to be trained by WNBA and NBA shooting legend Lethal Shooter who was in the country to conduct a basketball clinic with the players.

This year also saw the introduction of the 3-point rule to improve competitiveness and give players an opportunity to show their one-on-one shooting skills.