Wolfpacks maul KPA as Dumas bag first win

Kenya Basketball Federation (KBF) men's league champions Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) were on Sunday handed a rude wake-up call as newly promoted Africa Nazarene University (ANU) Wolfpacks walked all over the dockers for a 73-63 victory. 

The Mike Oluoch-led varsity side recovered from a first quarter 10-9 scoreline to assume lead and head to the half time break with a two-point advantage at 33-31. 

Thunder strike Equity as KPA pick victory in KBF's Saturday action

The dockers still had it within themselves to make a comeback as the match was still close, but the enterprising Wolfpacks left nothing to chance, bagging point after another even from the most difficult of positions. 

In the third quarter the students scored 22 against the dockers' 18 to extend their lead to six points heading to the final period that was a do or die for the Sammy Kiki led KPA. 

Startled, the dockers, in an attempt to close the gap against an ANU side that had the sizable crowd at Nyayo going wild in support, made more mistakes, easily giving away the ball, and that got them punished even more. In the end, Oluoch's charges proved the better side winning the match by ten points. 

"I think the players were overconfident coming into the match. Issues of fitness also played a part, my players could not keep up with ANU's speed. 

By the time they were realising ANU was no easy opponent the students had found their rhythm and it became hard to make a comeback. 

This is a wake up call, early in the season. We have to put last season's championship behind us and work to get our players in the best shape and ready to defend our title," offered coach Kiki. 

James Marial (24) and Frank Omondi (19) top scores for either side but the latter's efforts on the paint where he towered over everybody on the court was not enough to hand KPA victory. 

"We played according to the coaches instructions and believed in each other on the court. We were the underdogs and KPA have the hight advantage but we came prepared for that. We had perfect our defence and dominate on the rebounds.

Coming off a loss to Nairobi City Thunder, we did not want to lose another match and that influenced how we played in a big way. We had a week to correct on our mistakes, top of the list being our free throws as that was where we lost the match against Thunder," offered Wolfpacks skipper Sheldon Ouma. 

In other matches, Equity Dumas who began their season on Saturday with a shock defeat against Thunder recovered well in their second match to pick a 52-45 victory over Umoja. 

The bankers had a slow start, scoring nine points against Umoja's 11 in the first period but made adjustments to win the second quarter 16-8 and take a six-point advantage to the break. 

Umoja scored 21 points, against the bankers' 11 in the third quarter to assume lead and head to final period leading by four points. Kevin Sunguti's charges, however, fell when it mattered scoring five against Equity's 16 in the final period for the loss. 

In the women's league, there were no surprises as holders KPA thrashed 79-26 in a highly one-sided match that had the students going the entire first quarter pointless. Coach Oluoch had to work with a bench of six that contributed largely to the scoreline as they had only one substitute. 

Zetech Sparks continued their stellar show, beating Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) 76-24.