Engineers Brigade lost to Moi Air Base (MAB) in a Pool B match of the ongoing Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) Chairman’s basketball championship hosted at MAB by the Defence Forces Basketball Association.
The match, a repeat of last year’s Chief of Defence Forces (CDF) championship finals, was the highlight of the day as the hosts stunned the star-studded Thika-based engineers to a 52-43 loss.
It was sweet revenge for MAB who fell to engineers in the CDF finals. The eventual losers had a strong start winning the first quarter 14-6 courtesy of three tries from Collins Muliro a fourth from Eric Mutoro and two points from Hussein Yoyoh. They won the second period 15-14 for a nine-point lead into the breather.
Under tacticians John Okatch and Esther Butali, the hosts turned the tables on the Mutoro-captained Engineers in the second half playing for quarters of 19-7 and 13-7 for the win.
Before the encounter, the two sides had won their earlier matches on the second day of the five-day competition. The Thika-based Engineers got the championship off to a winning start on Monday as they thrashed Nanyuki’s 4th Brigade 56-28. Before falling to MAB, the Engineers had picked a 56-39 win against Nairobi Garrison.
On their part, MAB had opened the championship with a 49-43 win against Rangers Regiment following it up with a 43-22 thrashing of 4th Brigade.
Meanwhile, defending champions Kahawa Garrison have blown hot and cold in the championship as they opened their title defence with a 51-36 loss to Laikipia Air Base (LAB) before picking a 39-28 win against 6th Brigade. Lab won their second match 53-44 against Navy.
