Basketball in Africa

By CAXTON APOLLO

Former women’s basketball league champions Kenya Ports Authority on Saturday made a good start in their campaign to regain the title, whitewashing a weak Kenya Polytechnic 70-23 atthe Nyayo National Stadium.

In other matches, Sprite Storms hit Eastern Queens 20-0, Parklands Baptist defeated Mennonites 79-51 and Trail Blazers beat Nairobi Aviation 67-45. KPA surrendered the title to the self-supporting Eagle Wings, who shocked them 2-1 in last year’s best-of- three series play-offs final.

Vyonne Akinyi set the ball rolling with three quick baskets and a three-pointer as Irene Murambi exhibited her long experience, KPA had it all easy in the first quarter. The dockwomen then raced to a huge 23-4 first quarter advantage, with Kenya Poly only managing two baskets – from Papa Viola and Hilda Kimemia – in an entire 10 minutes.

Miriam Awuor, Brenda Angeshi and Akinyi remained instrumental as KPA led 34-6 at half-time. Inexperience cost Poly the last two quarters as KPA punished them 17-11 and 19-16, respectively. Poly were making their debut in the competition following their promotion from the Nairobi provincial league.

Akinyi and Awuor each scored a game-high 12 points for KPA while Joyce Makungu added 10. None of the Poly players scored in double figures, with Frida Musyoki replying with five points.

Continued good record

KPA conclude their two-match tour of Nairobi against Yana at noon on Sunday. Baptist continued with their good record when they rocked Mennonites, who won their opener 84-49 against Nakuru Club, 79-51. The losers had taken a narrow 21-20 first-quarter lead over Baptist, who beat World Hope 87-65 in their opener last weekend.

Joseph Situma’s three-pointers saw Baptist bag a 28-15 second-quarter lead. Collins Ngira poured in a series of three-pointers as Baptist went up 48-36 at thebreather, and Mennonites trailed 17-7 and 14-8 in the third and fourth quarters. Situma and Derrick Walumbe each had 21 points for the winners while Collins Ouko and Collins Ochieng’ scored 15 and 13points, respectively, for the losers.

Ismael Nyamachie scored 11 points and Joshua Vuva 13 as Blazers celebrated a 67-45 win over fellow newcomers Nairobi Aviation. Blazers led 45-24 at half-time. Alvin Mbaluka scored 11 points while Brandon Ouma replied with nine.

Sunday’s fixtures
Mennonites v Predators (10.30am), Yana v KPA (noon), ICC v Terrorists (2pm), Strathmore University v KPA (4pm)