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Institutional basketball teams dominated the local scene, with Ulinzi Warriors men and Equity Bank women lifting the 2019 Premier League championships.
Ulinzi Warriors reclaimed men’s title which had eluded them for three year’s when they rallied from behind to rock Thunder 3-1 in the best-of-five play-offs final.
Equity Bank, on the other hand, retained the women’s crown for second year in a row by beating Kenya Ports Authority 3-2 in a hotly-contested play-offs final. University of Nairobi’s Terrorists and Riara University are the other two institutional clubs that were newly crowned men’s Division One and Division Two League champions respectively.
Kisumu Lady Bucks defied the odds to become the second self-supporting team after Eagle Wings to win the 2019 women’s Division One league title.
Lady Bucks won on a 3-0 technicality after rivals Riara University were disqualified for fielding an illegible player in play-offs final Game Three.
Self-supporting Eagle Wings won women’s Premier League title three times in 2009 and 2011-12. Institutional teams that have exchanged the men and women’s Premier League titles in its 32-year history are KPA teams (19 titles), the disbanded Co-op Bank (8), Kenya Commercial Bank Lions and Lionesses (8), Posta (7), Ulinzi Warriors (8), Kenya Railways and NSSF, among others.
Thunder’s bid to become the first self-supporting team to win this year’s men’s Premier League championship went up in smoke in spite of the team qualifying for play-off final for the first time.
Eight-time champions Ulinzi Warriors denied Thunder the opportunity to make history when they rallied from a game down to win 1-3 in hotly-contested play-offs final to be crowned 2019 champions.
The victory saw Ulinzi Warriors, who had last won the league title in 2015, win their eighth crown since inception in 1987. Ulinzi Warriors beat Thunder 67-63 in Game Four of the best-of-five series to reclaim the title they had surrendered to Kenya Ports Authority in 2015.
Ulinzi Warriors rose from the dead to erase a 20 point difference to deny match favourites Thunder a chance of winning the series 2-2 and force make-or- break Game Five.
Thunder had sounded an early warning of ending institutional teams’ dominance by winning Game One 75-73. The season recorded a arear high scoring result with tension charged Game Two entering two extra-times.
The two battling giants had locked 86-86 and 102-102. Ulinzi Warriors won by posting a historic 123-106 in extra-time victory to tie the series 1-1.Physically fit Ulinzi Warriors demolished Thunder 21-4 in extra-time.
The season witnessed a tight competition with reigning men’s Premier League champions KPA surrendering the crown at the semi-final stage. Ulinzi Warriors, who lost 0-3 to KPA in last year’s play-off final, avenged the defeat to knock out KPA 3-1.
Equity Bank retained the women’s Premier League championship for the second year after they defeated perennial rivals KPA 3-2 in a tough play-offs final.
Terrorists bounced back to the 2020 men’s Premier League. Coached by former team forward and a medical physician Dr Eugene Gaya, Terrorists defeated fellow students Pirates 3-1 in the best-of-five series play-offs final. Pirates, who had earlier featured in the top league for several years, also earned automatic promotion to the Premier League by virtue of having qualified for the 2019 finals.
Riara University clinched the men’s Division Two championship for the first time after they defeated Coastal Kings 3-2 in a hard fought play-offs final.
Newly promoted in experienced teams posted impressive performance in this year’s men and women’s competitive Premier League.They are; Emyba (men) and University of Nairobi’s Dynamites (women) powered their way to the play-offs semi-finals on first attempt.
Coach Juma Kent’s Dynamites, who had returned into top flight competition after 25 years, lost 0-3 to champions Equity Bank in the women’s semi-final while Thunder had to battle from behind to eliminate stubborn Emyba 2-1 in the men’s semi-final. Emyba had won Game One 83-80 but lost 71-80 and 71-73 in Game Two and Three respectively.
KCITI also deserve praise for having emerged regular season of men’s Division Two winners with 48 points as new-comers from Nairobi Basketball Association League. KCITI went a head to qualify for the top eight-team play-offs but lost in the quarter-final.
Moi Air Base (MAB) won the provincial league tournament and together with NBA league winners Stanbic, qualified for promotion to next year’s men’s Division Two league.
The two new teams will take up slots left by regular campaigners 4-Christ and Egerton University who were relegated to the provincial league after finishing in last two positions.
For the first time, top side USIU-Tigers was thrown out of next year’s Premier League.
Coached by Kenya’s national team head tactician Cliff Owuor, Tigers finished second bottom to George Namake’s World Hope. Both teams were demoted to Division One next season.
