Beaten KPA limp out of BAL Qualifiers

Kenyan champions KPA lost 69-84 to NBA Academy of Senegal as their 2023 Basketball Africa League (BAL) qualification campaign ended in forgettable fashion in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Thursday’s result at Eli's Park Arena meant the Kenyans were beaten in all three of their qualifying matches having also lost to Cape Town Tigers (72-96) and URURANI of Burundi (43-72) over the past two days.

KPA had been placed in Pool A where Cape Town and URURANI have already qualified for the semis while in pool B City Oilers of Uganda and Ferroviario da Beira of Mozambique have qualified.

The top three teams will advance to the 2023 BAL Championship.

Against NBA Academy, KPA started off well winning first quarter 33-23 but lost the second 14-27 as they led 47-40 at half time.

Their advantage was quickly wiped away as NBA put up a huge 25-07 performance in the third and followed that up by winning the final quarter 19-15 to seal an impressive win.

Kennedy Wachira hit 21 points to stand out as the game’s leading scorer and was unfortunate to see his side go down nonetheless. Khaman Madit Maluach topped the scoring for NBA with 14 points.

In pool B, leaders City Oilers of Uganda hammered second placed Ferroviario da Beira of Mozambique 88-72 while Matero Magic of Zambia defeated COSPN of Madagascar 83-81 to take third place.