Teams, top players feted as curtains fall on Owalo basketball tournament

Nairobi City Thunder and Zetech University Sparks were on Sunday crowned the winners of the Eliud Owalo Foundation tournament. The finals were played at Ulinzi Sports Complex on Sunday. Thunder secured victory over Equity Dumas with a score of 80-71, while Sparks surprised national champions Kenya Ports Authority with a 59-50 win to claim the ladies' trophy. Thunder coach Brad Ibs highlighted the tournament's benefit for Kenyan Basketball noting it was helpful needful at this time in the season as it helped us get better placed in our competitions so far. "Playing three games in one day is challenging, but in the final minutes, we managed it well and took the lead," Ibs said. The winners received a prize of Sh300,000, with the runners-up earning Sh200,000, the third-place team taking home Sh100,000, and the fourth-placed teams awarded Sh40,000. Top players were also recognised with cash prizes, trophies, and medals, alongside key performers in various categories. In the third/fourth classification games, KPA men and Equity Bank Hawks claimed bronze by defeating Ulinzi Warriors (56-53) and United States International University (USIU) Flames (65-56) respectively. Betty Kananu led the scoring for the bankers with 18 points, while Judith Pantaleo, Naseria Ninel, and Hilda Indasi scored 12, 11, and 10 points respectively for Flames. "This is a learning lesson. We win some, we lose some, then get back to the drawing board. It's a wake-up call as we prepare for the playoffs, in which I have confidence," KPA Ladies coach Antony Ajukuw said. "We have to do some work, we did not practice well the last two weeks. We will get better soon. Now we don't have a choice, we have to win this. To my team members, we will make it, "The last five minutes at extra time. We knew the game will end at 40 minutes. We did not have a plan for it but we will prepare better. That's competition. We are bringing back Kenyan basket so this tournament came in handy," Ajukuw said. "This is a game, sometimes the ball doesn't bounce how you want it. We celebrate tonight and get back to tomorrow since we have a game on Wednesday," Equity Bank head coach David Maina on his unexpected loss. He also said: "We did not play our best game early but our boys stayed with the game, I think this might be the first loss for Thunder this season." "Like many of the fans we thought this would be the first loss for Thunder this season." In the last quarter, the two teams ended in a 65-65 tie which lead to an additional five minutes of extra time. Thunder then stole in their momentum and had fresh legs and the boys were played well in those five minutes which Equity were said to had no plan for according to their instructor.. "In the final moments, we ran a play with 18 seconds to tie it up and the boys executed it perfectly and it extended into overtime which at the end worked for us," Thunder coach Brad Ibs said. "We needed our captain Griffin Lagari who shot up and did that thing for us and one of the many reasons he is captain," Ibs concluded.
Courtesy of: the-star.co.ke