Lynette Matheka
Strathmore University Swords extended their unbeaten run after picking wins in their two weekend matches to remain the only invincible side in the Kenya Basketball Federation (KBF) women league.
Coach Ronnie Owino’s charges picked a slim 36-35 win against Eagle Wings on Saturday before beating United States International University-Africa (USIU-Africa) 60-27 on Sunday to take their unbeaten run to nine matches.
Swords remain the only team yet to drop points after Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) ended defending champions Equity Bank Hawks’ unbeaten run in a Saturday match played at Makande Social Hall.
The win for the dockers came amidst a protest from Hawks who are contesting the fielding of dockers’ player Felmas Koranga who left mid-2018 for a scholarship with Tyler University in the US.
“We needed such a game to challenge us and this will help us gauge our performance going forward. The match was good but my players lost concentration after the first quarter and thus the tightly contested match,” said Hawks’ head coach David Maina.
On his part, Mike Opel who has led KPA in the last three matches says his players are playing well and hopes that they keep improving. After taking over from coach Antony Ojukwu, the Dockers have won two matches and lost one.
“We are not badly off. The players are doing a good job so far but in the Hawks’ match we cracked in the final quarter. At some point we had a 12 point lead but we allowed them to get back in the game and almost lost the match,” said Opel who says Koranga is registered as a KPA player thus allowed playing time.
In another women’s league match, University of Nairobi (UON) Dynamites added to Eagle Wings’ woes as they subjected them to another half a basket loss in a 56-55 outcome.
Eagle Wings took the lead at 16-12 in the first quarter before UON turned tables for a 16-8 score in the second quarter. Wings made a comeback to score 19 against the scholars’ nine but allowed UON to control the final quarter for a 19-12 in their favour for the slim win.
