KPA outclass Strathmore to inch closer to playoff final

Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) hammered Strathmore Blades 66-44 to put one foot in the Kenya Basketball Federation playoff semifinals on Saturday.

KPA raced to a 14-8 lead in the opening quarter before going 19-9, 24-7 and 9-20 in the closing quarters.

Darin Omondi of Blades emerged top scorer with 14 points while KPA’s Frank Omondi and James Mwangi had 11 each.

In last weekend encounter KPA won game one 62-54 while Blades won game two 69-56 making tomorrow’s match more attractive and competitive.

In last weekend’s game two defeat, KPA head coach blamed poor defence but today he thanked his team for great improvement.

“We had worked on our defense after performing poor in game two, and today we saw a lot of improvement. Our shots were dropping and we are not going to relax in tomorrow’s fourth game since I want to avoid fifth game on Monday,” Kiki told Citizen Digital.

His sentiments were seconded b team’s captain Samuel Ocholla.

” our mental focus was good, we want to close it up in game four tomorrow,” Happy Ocholla said.

As KPA plan to qualify tomorrow into the finals, Blades are not willing to let that happen as they plan to give them challenge of their lifetime to be able to win and play game five on Monday.

“We are going back to drawing board. We assure our fans that we will play game five on Monday. Today we started well but lost focus in third quarter after panicking.” Blades head coach Tony Ochieng narrated.

The two will clash it out tomorrow in game four which will be a difficult, entertaining and competitive match at the same venue from 4pm in the evening.