Title fight: Equity, KPA to renew rivalry in basketball league final

It’s going to be a repeat of last year’s final in the Kenya Basketball Federation (KBF) women Premier League after the defending champions Equity Bank and Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) sailed through to the final after winning their respective game three semis matches played on Saturday.

The two sides will be meeting for the fifth consecutive time in the final with each having won two titles in the last four meetings.

Equity won in 2015 and 2018 while KPA prevailed in 2016 and 2017.

KPA sailed to the final after crushing Storms 58-45 in Game Three of the semi-final playoffs at their home court in Makande, Mombasa Saturday.

The Mombasa based side won Game One and Two 82-52 and 81-61 respectively in Nairobi last weekend and the Saturday fixture gave them a chance to complete the job they had started in Nairobi.

They dominated three quarters winning narrowly 13-12 in the first quarter before Storms outdid them in the second quarter with a 09-08 win.

The two went to half time tying 21-21 in what looked like a do-or-die battle but KPA rose to boss the game after the interval winning 17-07 in the third quarter before winding it up with a 20-17 in the fourth quarter.

Storms head coach Abel Nson was gracious in defeat.

“They were the better team. We’re going to recruit more players to be able to prepare well for next season,”Nson said.

Meanwhile, defending champions Equity Bank also booked a place in the final after dispatching UoN Dynamites 65-38 in Game Three of the semis a week after they had won Game One and Two 60-32 and 76-38 respectively last weekend.

The Bankers also dominated three quarters winning the first quarter 15-05 before falling to a 06-09 defeat in the second quarter to take a 21-14 lead at half time.

In the second half, Hawks looked unstoppable after garnering 44 points against 24.

With the victory sealed and tickets to the final in the pocket, Equity Bank head coach David Maina is already spoiling for war in the finale noting that it “will be a final to remember’ since both sides wants to win the trophy.

“I am happy our plan worked and we are going to start preparations for the final which is going to be tougher, and we shall be working on our weakness,” Maina said.

Equity have three major injury concern as Betty Kananu is ruled out until next year while Linda Alando and Brenda Ngaira are still being examined to see whether they will be available for the final.