Morans coach Mills criticizes Warriors approach to friendly match

Morans coach Mills criticizes Warriors approach to friendly match

Basketball writer

Kenya’s men basketball team head coach Lizz Mills has criticized Ulinzi Warriors approach in Monday’s friendly match staged at the Nyayo Gymnasium saying the latter did not deploy a game pattern upon.

According to Mills, the Warriors were expected to mount a resolute defence, to help expose Morans’ weaknesses but they didn’t stick to the plan, instead chasing to win the game, negating the essence of the friendly.

Morans were using the match as a warm-up ahead of the 2021 Afrobasket Championship Finals set for Kigali, Rwanda from next week.

Mills was however absent from the game allowing his assistant to take charge.

“We are disappointed with the display by Ulinzi yesterday because we had kindly requested a couple of defensive adjustments to allow us to work on our offense but opposed to that they decided to sit in a 2-3 zone and were trying to win the game as opposed to helping us get ready for Afrobasket. For the Morans there was no benefit playing yesterday, we didn’t get anything we wanted out of it,” Mills fumed.

At the same time Morans assistant head coach Abel Nson is delighted with the arrival of foreign based Tylor Okari Ongwae who was part of the team in Monday’s friendly.

“He is our emotional leader and has carried the team well so his presence at camp increases our positive feel about practice and our preparations,” he said.

The Denmark-based was instrumental in their last qualification journey in Yaounde, Cameroon as he produced the clutch shot as Kenya pulled off a shock 74-73 win over 11-time African champions Angola to qualify for the 2021 Afrobasket Championship Finals set for Kigali, Rwanda.

In April Ongwae inspired 18-time Danish basketball champions Bakken Bears to the Danish Men’s Cup by beating Horsens 80-82 in the final.

The FIBA Afrobasket Championship will tip off from August 24 to September 5 at the Kigali Arena in Rwanda.

Ranked 112th globally, the Morans last featured at the biennial event in 1993 by virtue of playing hosts to the games finishing fourth.

Tags:

morans Ulinzi Warriors FIBA Afrobasket Liz Mills

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