Warriors survive Pirates onslaught to end first leg on a high

Former Kenya Basketball Federation (KBF) men's league champions Ulinzi Warriors completed their 11-match first leg on a winning note, picking a 91-70 victory against Kenyatta University Pirates. 

The military side had a good start scoring 34 points against the varsity side's 16 in an explosive first quarter that had Churchill Odhiambo scoring seven of his 14 points in the period. 

NBL Finals: Okal’s Blazers fall short in Game seven.

However, the Caleb Osewe-coached varsity side switched their defense from Zone to man and the soldiers found themselves in trouble, scoring 15 points, less than half of their first quarter tally, as Pirates made 18 to reduce their deficit from 18 to 15 heading to the breather. 

"We had to dig deep to bag this win. We had many lapses against a much-improved K.U side. We were, however, able to correct our mistakes towards the end of the game, rebounded well and had better transitions for the win," offered Warriors' head coach Bernard Mufutu. 

On resumption, the Dolph Benedict-powered varsity side scored 23 against Warriors 17 to reduce their deficit to nine. 

More drama unfolded in the final period, Pirates coming to within four points of equaling the former champions' score at 70-66 with two minutes on the clock. 

Ivan Ombiru who had bossed the boards, collecting crucial rebounds on both ends of the court, however, fouled out leaving an exposed Pirates paint and Warriors took full advantage to run the scores. The soldiers achieved their biggest scoring run of 15 points in those last minutes for the win. 

"We tried our first defense and when it did not work we decided to tactically switch since they were beating us on zone defense. We realised we were faster than they are but we failed to take advantage of that. 

In the last minutes of the match, we lost our big man and the replacement did not play to his ability and that became our weak point. 

We were losing easy balls and the recovery was slow and it was impossible to beat Warriors with such mistakes," Pirates head coach Osewe offered. 

Warriors have lost two matches in the first leg, to holders Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) and title-hopefuls Equity Dumas.

Pirates on the other hand have won three of the eight matches played so far and are hoping to make it four when they take on University of Nairobi (UoN) Terror on Sunday 16 October.