Warriors, Blades cut niche in league as fight for title intensifies

Ulinzi Warriors have maintained their high octane performance in the Kenya Basketball Federation Premier League as their quest for the title continues unabated.

The Warriors at the weekend silenced Kenya College of Accountancy (KCA) 52-48 in a league encounter at the USIU grounds.

The students had a rather good start taking a 14-9 and 10-4 leads in the first and second quarter respectively, settling the scores 24-13 by the blow of the half time whistle.

However, Ulinzi Warriors came back stronger in the subsequent quarters outscoring KCA 16-12 in the third quarter, and further widening the scores with a 23-12 win in the fourth quarter  to win the contest 52-48.

Speaking to Citizen Digital, Ulinzi Warriors head coach William Balozi hailed his boys for the outstanding performance especially after coming off an 11-point deficit at the start of the half before claiming the victory.

“I hail our opponents, they matched us up in the opening minutes of the game. Because of them, we have every reason to be stronger .These  Premier League fixtures generally act as build-up matches as we prepare for the first edition of the African Masculine Military Basketball Championship that is set to take place in Brazzaville ,Congo from June 10 -22,”Balozi said.

In other matches, Strathmore Blades continued with their impressive form  beating Thunder 85-75 in a closely fought match.

Cliff Alela and George Okoth both scored 12 points for the Blades as Faheem Juma emerged the top scorer  bagging 23 points for the losers. Hit-man Griffin Ligare had a silent game in the first half but regained his form in the second period by draining a pair of three pointers, finishing the game with 13 points.

In the women’s matches, Storms were handed a walkover against Cooperative Bank who so far haven’t honoured any of their fixture in the men and  women category citing management issues.

At the same time, newcomers Footprints succumbed to  a 48-56 defeat to Zetech University while Equity Bank thrashed Eagle Wings 48-24 in a one-sided fixture that saw the bankers’ cash in maximum points over the weekend.