25 November 2007

KENYA : Terrorists, Storms fight back to force the decisive third games

by CAXTON APOLLO

University of Nairobi’s Terrorists and Sprite Storms men and women’s teams on Saturday forced the decisive third games of their 2007 basketball play-offs semi-finals at the Nairobi’s Nyayo Stadium.

In game two of the the men’s Division semi final play-off, Telkom became the first team to qualify for the 2007 finals when they eliminated Mennonites 2-0 on the best-of-three series. They rocked Mennonites 81-73 in after having started off well with a 87-76 run in the first game last weekend.

Terrorists, who enjoyed the full support from the crowd, did not disappoint their fans as they took the series to the decisive third game on Sunday.

Sprites Storms also battled from behind to tie the women’s semi final series 1-1 after with a 82-61 win over the Flames of the United States International Univerity-Africa (USIU-A) in the tight Game Two match. Flames had won Game One 62-51.

Co-op Bank, who had won the opener 69-67 went up narrowly 16-15 in the first quarter after Wycliffe Ochieng and Horace Nyadera utilised well their scoring chances.

It was Brian Busu and Arnold Mulili’s turn to disapprove the bankers as Terrorists recovered first to lead 16-9 in the second quarter.

Determined to go places in their first play-offs qualification since the format’s inception in 1999, the students raced a 31-25 half-time lead.

Genga brothers Eugene and Rodney teamed up well with Moses Kamau to do damage as Co-op Bank struggled to take lead without any lack.

Terrorists maintained a 45-39 advantage in the third quarter before Lewis Muya and Ochieng fired three-pointers at will to lock it 46-46.

Terrorists stole back into the lead on 49-46 at the begining of the last quarter but Ochieng shot well from the edge of the court to tie the game 58-58.

After Eugene Genga unlocked the tie, Rodney and Kamau scored 100 percent from the free-throw line to ensure that the students stayed in the hunt.

Eugene Genga scored 24 points, Brian Busu shot for Terrorists while Ochieng replied with 20 points which included six three-pointers, Richard Osano hit 10 and Nyadera 13 for Co-op Bank.

In the women’s tie,Hilda Luvandwa scored game-high 28 points, Caroline Achiend had 14 while Linda Alando added 10 as Sprite Storms worked extra hard in the win over USIU.

After going down 62-51 in their opener, Storms did their homework well to pin down the students from the word go to lead 39-25 at half-time. Flames were down 25-10 in the third quarter but regrouped in the last quarter to outscore Storms 26-18. Angela Akoth scored 16 points and Samba Mjomba 15 for Flames.

The two teams meet again on Sunday in their decisive Game Three to determine who qualifys for the 2007 final.

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