It’s Equity Hawks vs KPA for KBF National Women’s Basketball title

NAIROBI, Kenya, Feb 14 – Defending champions Equity Hawks will take on Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) in the final of the Kenya Basketball Federation Women’s Premier League title in a repeat of last year’s finale after the two sides cruised to the final with clean sweeps.

KPA had earlier on Saturday seen off Storms in Mombasa to sweep the series 3-0 after winning Game One and Two in Nairobi last weekend.

On Sunday, it was Equity Hawks’ turn to make their way to the final and they did so, with a 66-53 victory in Game Three.

Head coach David Maina was delighted and is already plotting for the dockers in the final.

“I am proud of the ladies and our performance. If you look at the journey, we didn’t start well but we picked up as the series was progressing. In Game One, Zetech was the better side and we only won because of experience. In the last two games we decided to slow down their transition to keep ourselves in the game and it worked for us,” said the tactician.

Looking towards the final, Maina says he expects a tough duel.

“For KPA, we will go all out. We are both experienced and whoever comes with a positive mentality will win the game. We have to sit down and see what we need to improve and areas we need to intensify instructions on to be able to win,” added the tactician.

Against a tough Zetech side who had taken them toe to toe in Game One and Two, Equity were in no mood to let the gas off the peddles and see the University girls force Game Four.

Captain Samba Mjomba led from the front literally, sinking 19 points for the Hawks, nine of the being from beyond the arch. Salma Akinyi had 13 points while Betty Kananu, formerly with KPA, had nine points for Maina’s girls.

Zetech were determined to push the series into a fourth game and they started strongly, but Equity won the opening quarter 12-11. In the second quarter, Equity proved their mettle with a decisive display, sinking in 30 points against Zetech’s only seven.

But, the Equity bench of Maina and Sylvia Kamau almost handed Zetech a free pass back into the game when they hugely rotated the squad in the third quarter, putting out all their star players with their eyes probably convinced the game was all but won.

They were made to pay with Zetech outscoring them by 10 points and they scented blood having narrowed the score to 52-38.

Despite seeing that his side was clearly being boxed out by Zetech, Maina stuck to the same rotation decision in the last quarter but with Zetech further narrowing the scores, he called a time out with 6:12 remaining on the clock.

The team came back with the strongest starting five of Samba, Kananu, Melissa Akinyi, Salma and Linda Alando back to the steady the ship.

They did just but enough to see the game to safety and break Zetech’s hunger in their first ever attempt at the semis.

While Equity beat KPA in the final last year, the latter revenged with victory in the Zone Five regional championship and each will be out to prove a point when the final starts next weekend.