KPA Women, Equity Hawks on level terms
By Gibo.Zachary, February 21, 2022
A fierce battle is expected in the Kenya Basketball Federation women’s Premier League final playoffs with three games left after former champions KPA fought back to tie the series 1-1 with reigning champions Equity Hawks.
Hawks won Game One on Saturday 53-51 but KPA clinched Game Two 58-45 on Sunday to level matters going into Game Three and Four, or Five, this coming weekend in Mombasa.
KPA coach Anthony Ojukwu is confident of building on their victory to complete the job in their backyard and reclaim the title they last won in 2017.
“For sure, I’m truly delighted with Sunday’s win. On Saturday we had a slight slip but I’m happy my players worked hard and earned the win in the second game, a victory that is very important to us as we will be playing at home in Mombasa next. As I said earlier, we’re the favourite to win this year’s title though that does not mean we underrate our opponents playing at home should give something extra,” said Ojukwu.
Melissa Akinyi, Salma Akinyi and Betty Kananu were all outstanding in Game One, scoring 12 points each to propel Hawks to a cutthroat 53-51 win over KPA despite Natalie Akinyi’s efforts where she scored a game-high 17 points for the Dockers.
However, in Game Two, fueled by 12 points from in-form Vilma Achieng as well as 11 points from Rebecca Nkatha and another 11 points by Selina Okumu, the Dockers bounced back to tie the encounter 1-1 with a convincing 58-45 victory.
Corrected lapses
“Mombasa is our home and when we won the league, we won Game Three and Four at our home ground, so we’re looking forward to doing that again,” said KPA’s Natalie Akinyi.
Equity Bank Hawks coach Sylvia Kamau remains confident despite losing Game Two, saying that the title is theirs to keep and they are going to Mombasa to crown it all.
“The weather there is different from Nairobi but we still have confidence we are going to defend our title,” said Equity Bank Hawks coach Sylvia Kamau.