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Equity Bank Hawks successfully retained the National Women's Basketball League title with a 61-51 win over Kenya Ports Authority in Game Five of the finals playoffs at the Nyayo National Stadium on Friday.
Finals MVP Annerose Mandela, who top scored for the bankers with 19 points, did the damage as the bankers ran out 3-2 winners in the best-of-five series.
"I didn't like the way we started. We gave them a big lead and we had to dig and dig but in the end we didn't have the legs to carry us through," KPA coach Mike Opel said.
"We played well. We played as a team. Our execution was on point," Equity coach David Maina said.
Maina was full of praise for MVP Mandela after the match.
"I'm so happy for Mandela. She played like a veteran. Her job was to ensure Indasi (Hilda) does not have a great game because we knew she is the main executioner for KPA. And she did that well."
KPA, down 15 points going into the fourth quarter, went on a 8-0 run to open the fourth, but Equity steadily held on to to go 46-38 up with 4:46 on the clock. KPA then cut the lead with 2:02 to 49-42, then 55-46 before Equity pulled away to 61-49 - with Mandela making another crucial basket at 59-49 to all but end KPA's hopes of staging a late comeback.
KPA had evened the series 2-2 on Thursday night with a blowout 69-53 in Game Four at the same venue.
