City Thunder crowned basketball champions after sweep against KPA

The Shauri Moyo based side hammered the Dockers 86-48 on Saturday evening at the Nyayo Gymnasium, Nairobi in Game Three of the five game series.

The hotly contested match played in a fully packed gymnasium - Thunder won the league unbeaten bringing to an end their long wait for the title.

Thunder dominated the whole game from the first whistle to the end.  They started off well winning first quarter 26-09 before sharing points in the second quarter which ended 16-16 as halftime score standing at 42-25 in favor of the Nairobians.

Thunder opened a 28-point lead in the third quarter after an impressive show winning with a huge margin 24-11 before claiming another victory of 20-10 in the last quarter as the game ended 86-48 at the final buzzer.

Thunder captain Griffins Ligare won the playoffs Most Valuable Player while his counterpart Albert Odero won the regular season Most Valuable Player.

Thunder head coach Brad Ibs bagged the coach of the season award while his team manager Kooshin Diriye won the team manager of the season award.

Albert Odero was shining star for Thunder scoring game high 20 points with Griffins Ligare and Faheem Juma adding 16 and 13 respectively.

On their part, KPA's John Wijass and Abdulaye Haidara had 22 points combined.

Thunder head coach Brad Ibs was over the moon after the triumph.

"We knew we can play a game like this against a good team all the year. It is historic, a very beautiful thing that can happen when great players let  their ego at the door and care about the well being of one another and the team," Ibs said.

His sentiments were echoed by team captain Griffins Ligare. "I am out of words, I just feel great I don't know what to say, I just thank God, if you believe then things can really happen . I'm very grateful, I attribute it to hardwork, team work and changes that twende sports brought to the club," emotional Ligare said.

On his part, KPA head coach Cliff Owuor accepted the defeat.

"Thunder have done a great job assembling a great team. We give them credit for what they have done, great organisation it was fantastic.

On our side we did not play good basketball as we did in Mombasa. We amplified the mistakes we did in Mombasa. It is not easy to come from such a defeat when playing such a team like Thunder," Owuor said.

Thunder had won Game One and Game Two 73-70 and 59-50 respectively in Mombasa and will be representing the country in the Basketball Africa League (BAL) next season.

Courtesy of winning the title, Thunder took home Ksh 350,000 while KPA got Ksh 100,000.