Equity relish basketball league title chances

Equity Bank men’s basketball team head coach David Maina is confident his side has what it takes to go all the way this season despite their main rivals Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) and reigning champions Ulinzi Warriors starting brightly so far this season.

Maina says he has a big squad to choose from this term with nearly every member of his traveling 10 players averaging nine minutes per game and will only get better as the season wears on.

He is confident they will be in a position to go toe-to-toe with the league’s best teams in the postseason with the semifinals being their worst finish.

“This season we have improved our ranks with quality signings that will prove vital in the postseason.

“If you look at the way I do my rotations, almost everyone in the squad manages to have more than nine minutes every game and that’s a good thing because I know I can count on every player in the squad on any given day.”

One of the dimensions his side will have to master if they want to have a deep run into the play-offs is closing out games in which they have big leads.

Maina concedes his players have the tendency of switching off in such games.

In our first game against UoN Terror, we had a 20-point lead and many of my players started making a few errors and becoming casual.

I want to get rid of that as soon as possible so that we can dictate games and I’m confident we can do that with the talents at our disposal.”

He has urged his charges to work on their individual game with the help of the coaching in a bid to have a consummate outfit come postseason.

“Fundamentally we need to finish games with a similar tempo and energy that we start.

“That will not come easy if we do not have the right attitude in training,” he warned.

Meanwhile after losing their unbeaten run in the Kenya Basketball Federation (KBF) league over the weekend, Ulinzi Warriors captain John Washika says they are going back to the drawing board to rectify their mistakes.

The soldiers had won all four of their opening matches of the men’s premier league but Lakeside ended their excellent form beating them 61-59  at Manyatta Primary Arab School and Washika says this should serve as a wake-up call.

“We are actually going back to the drawing board to work on our mistakes and correct the errors and from there we will be good to go,” he said.

Ulinzi so far have nine points after beating Blades, Eldonets, KCA-University, Umoja and losing to Lakeside.

Ulinzi take on University of Nairobi’s Terror next Saturday and Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) on Sunday.

-Additional reporting by Dennis Kamariki

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equity bank Ulinzi Warriors Kenya Ports Authority David Maina

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