Coach Balozi wants more from Warriors despite win

Ulinzi Warriors head coach William Balozi has urged his side to improve despite inflicting the first defeat of the season to the Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) in a Kenya Basketball Federation (KBF) league match over the weekend at Makande Gymnasium.

After losing to KPA 06-17 in the first quarter, Ulinzi regrouped to win the second, third and fourth quarters (20-13, 26-16 and 18-10) respectively to bag beat the hosts 72-56.

While it was another routine win for Ulinzi, Balozi believes his side struggled to earn victory urging his side to be more ruthless.

“The KPA game was tough. We struggled from the word go since they started with a win but we went to a drawing board and the boys improved and played well,” Balozi said.

The Soldiers have had an impressive campaign as they sit top of the log with 20 points after concluding their first leg fixtures.

The defending champions have only tasted a single defeat in their 11 outings this season, with their only loss coming from Lakeside of Kisumu.

“We are happy for the performance we showed in the first leg finishing at the top and now we shift our focus to the second leg because the boys are in very high spirits,” added Balozi.

It was the first loss of the season for KPA who have only played a paltry five matches in the first leg.

Meanwhile, last season’s men premier league finalist Thunder continued from where they left last weekend winning 49-034 against KCA University.

They dominated the first, third and fourth quarters winning 13-07, 16-08 and 12-10 respectively while KCA won the second quarter narrowly 09-08.

Thunder have now played eight games, winning five and losing three with 13points.

“We were playing a young team, we struggled keeping up with their tempo. Our shots couldn’t drop in the first half but we picked it up in the second half,” Thunder head coach Sadat Gaya observed after the match.

Elsewhere in the women’s league, defending champions Equity Bank hammered UoN Dynamites 44-37.

Despite the win head coach Sylvia Njeri says they didn’t play as they had expected but was nevertheless pleased with the hard-fought victory.

“It wasn’t as planned but at least we won and we are going to focus on the next match,” she said.

The two teams reigned supreme in  two quarters each with the Hawks winning the first and fourth quarters 11-03 and 16-10 respectively as  Dynamites took victory in the  second and third quarters 16-12 and 8-5 respectively.

Equity’s Samba Mjomba led the scoring sheet with 14 points while Trizah Akeyo of Dynamites had 12 points.

The Bankers have won all their seven matches to accumulate 14 points in the first leg.