Ligare shines as Umoja sink Thunder in KBF

The win took Umoja to seven points after five matches, level with Thunder who have also played a similar number of games.

Umoja led the opening quarter 19-10 and the second ended 27 evens with Umoja establishing a 46-37 half time lead.

Thunder were impressive off the break, winning the third quarter 18-11 before claiming another narrow win of 10-09 to fall just short.

Thunder's point guard Griffins Ligare was at his pulling strings best, scoring a game-high 22 points as Thomas Kioko added an impressive 14 points. 

Moses Alier and Washington Marol were Umoja's shining stars dropping 22 points combined.

Umoja's assistant head coach Joseph Dibondo attributed the win for defensive display.

"Our win last weekend boosted our morale and we had to win. Our defense really worked for us, our shooters also did well without forgetting our young players," Dibondo said.

On his part, Thunder captain Griffins Ligare blamed slow start for the loss 

"We started a bit slow especially in first half. By the time we were recovering I guess it was too late for us. Next match we shall try to start with the same energy we finished with today," Ligare said.

Elsewhere in women's premier league match played at the same venue, Maryann Nyagaki inspired Equity Hawks to thrash Eagle Wings 68-26.

Nyagaki scored 22 points as Linet Akinyi added 13 to guarantee the bankers their third win of the season in the three matches played so far.

The former champions dominated all the quarters winning first one 17-02 before another one of 16-11, going to halftime leading 33-13.

After the break they continued from where they stopped as they dominated the second half winning 10-04 and 25-09 in the third and fourth quarters respectively.

The win took Equity to six points to level up with the defending champions Kenya Ports Authority while Eagle Wings have four points having won one match and lost two.