Basketball Title: Roaring Thunder Strike KPA, Aim To Complete The Job In Nairobi

Nairobi City Thunder basketball team head coach Brad Ibs has applauded his boys for ‘a great performance’ in Mombasa during Game One and Two of the Kenya National Basketball Premier League Final over the weekend. The Nairobi-based side who are unbeaten this season won Game One 73-70 on Saturday before another win of 59-50 of Game Two on Sunday at the Makande Gymnasium, Mombasa, against defending champions Kenya Ports Authority (KPA). The win has left Thunder on the brink of dethroning KPA as league champions. They lead the five-game series 2-0 and will be hoping to close the business on Friday night when they host the latter at Nyayo Gymnasium during Game Three and avoid Game Four and Five. On their side KPA have an uphill task in their bid to retain the title as they have to have all the three remaining matches. "I am really happy to leave Mombasa 2-0 up in the series and everyone who watched the games can tell,” he explained. “Mombasa is not an easy place to play, they got a very good fan base here and it was a really good team that we were up against. They are well coached and they played extremely hard against us for the two games. We struggled to make shots on Sunday even though I think we played quite well overall," Ibs said. At the same time the soft-spoken coach has now shifted focus to Nairobi games set for this weekend. "As we go back to Nairobi, I think we won’t have major changes, we will just try having a good week of training and helping the guys to stay sharp and it will be great to get back in our gym. I am hoping we shoot the ball better on our home court. Looking forward to Game Three on Friday and we expect them to come strong again just as they did here in Mombasa," Ibs added.

In Game Two, Thunder started off well winning the first quarter 12-09 before picking a 21-14 win in the second quarter as they went to break leading 33-23. After the break KPA tried to fight back winning 18-10 but Thunder could not give them a chance as they struck in the last quarter winning 16-09 as the game ended 59-50 at the final buzzer. Morans star Albert Odero (193-G-1997, college: Talladega) was at his best scoring a game high 17 points for the Thunder as Garand Diing added another 10. On their part Tobias Odhiambo was a shining star for his team scoring team high 15 points for the Dockers as Benjamin Muga and Abdoulaye Haidara scored seven each.
Courtesy of: citizen.digital