Kenya Ports Authority ladies basketball team walloped Jeshi La Kujenga Taifa Stars (Tanzania) 105 – 47 in a one-sided second match of the on-going FIBA Africa Women Basketball League at the Lycee De Kigali indoor gymnasium.
The starting line-up of power forward Morgan Greene, team Captain and point guard Natalie Mwangale, center Madina Akot, small forward Selina Okumu and shooting guard Victoria Reynolds got the Dockers off to a good start quickly opening an 8 – 2 gap within the first two minutes of play.
Head Coach Anthony Ojukwu had the liberty to utilise all his bench power as he injected fresh legs with 4:30 left to play. The new line-up lived up to expectations as they put on a transition basketball show to the delight of the crowd with suffocating defence that resulted in well-timed steals and easy points to close the quarter at 32 – 10 in favour of KPA.
The Dockers continued with their onslaught in the remaining quarters as they outplayed JKT on both defensive and offensive ends easily winning 78 – 34 and 105 – 47 in the last two quarters.
Without a doubt the star of the match was the talented and youthful Aminata Samassekou who had fun displaying her floor vision, skilful ball handling and passing skills, led the KPA onslaught as the lead scorer with 19 points, 8 assists and 8 steals.
Towering Madina Okot pumped in 16 points and pulled down 10 rebounds, Victoria Reynolds contributed 15 points and dished out 5 assists while Hilda Luvandwa scored 10 points. Sarah Budodi and Irene Kapambala led the opponents with 8 points each while Upendo Mpera and Penina Lushinge scored 6 points each.
According to the KPA technical bench, the youthful Tanzanian side did not go down without a fight displaying commendable dribbling and shooting skills as they resisted the much-experienced KPA side despite trailing for the entire game.
“This is a team to watch for in future tournaments as they have youthful potential and possess promising talents.”, added Head Coach Anthony Ojukwu.
KPA took full advantage of the heavily mismatched opportunity to close the tie with a 58 points difference from the final 105 – 47 score line.
In their toughest preliminary match of the championship, KPA ladies’ team will face off against hosts REG of Rwanda at 6:00 pm local time in a tie that will determine the Group B
leader. While REG will want to finish the first round with a clean sheet.
“They know that KPA is no push over and remains the team to beat in the tournament. Both teams have strengthened their rosters with international quality players as part of their title hunt to enhance their qualification for the next round of the continental championship”, added Ojukwu.
The match up will definitely be a mouth-watering encounter fit for a final. The Dockers will wrap up their first-round games against the upcoming Nile Legends from South Sudan in the opening match tomorrow before they engage in the quarter final stage match against the third or fourth placed team in Pool A.
The Semi-final matches and final will be played on Thursday and Friday respectively.
