Equity Bank coach Maina far from impressed despite bagging playoffs slot

Despite finishing second in the regular league to claim a playoffs slot, Equity Bank women’s basketball team head coach David Maina is far from impressed.

According to Maina, the girls should have bagged the first slot like last term. The bankers were however in imperious form hammering Kisumu Lady Bucks 56-19 in their last match of regular league to finish second with 35 points after 18 matches, behind KPA.

“It was not a tough match, finishing second was not what we wanted because our target was to finish position one so that we can have advantage in the playoffs,” Maina said.

At the same time, Maina says losing their two key players at the beginning of the season really affected them but they have been working to fill the gaps.

Equity lost Ann Rose Mandela who was last season Most Valuable Player, currently out of the country for work related activity and Belinda Akoth who is working outside Nairobi.

“We lost two players, one went outside the country to work while the other is working out of town. This really affected us, especially Mandela who was last season’s Most Valuable Player.

“We have been working to fill the gaps they left and I can say by the time we will be playing our playoffs after the Zone Five championship we shall have a different team with different attitude, ready to defend the title,” Maina added.

Elsewhere Kisumu Lakeside utilized their home ground advantage beating Thunder 51-45 to increase their hopes of finishing at higher position in the men’s premier league.

Lakeside head coach Dismas Oketch applauded his boys for a great display leading the entire game.

Despite the win, Oketch felt sorry for Thunder after their forward Tony Mwendwa suffered a season- ending injury during the fourth quarter.

“As Lakeside we are really sorry for our brother Tony and the Thunder team as a whole for the incident. We are wishing him quick recovery as we look forward to seeing him on the court again,” Oketch said.

On his part, Thunder head coach Sadat Gaya conceded defeat.

“We started slow though managed to close the gap but it was too late to secure a win and I failed to do a good job in terms of making adjustments.  Kisumu played amazing game, their coach did a great job and they did deserve the win,” Gaya on the loss.

Weekend results

Men Premier League

Eldonets 79-53 Thunder

Terror 60-73 KU Pirates

KPA 71-32 Umoja

KPA 20-00 EMYBA (Walkover)

Eldonets 67-62 Blades

Lakeside 51-45 Thunder

Women Premier League

Zetech 97-16 Lady Bucks

Storms 26-45 Eagle Wings

Equity 56-19  Kisumu Lady Bucks

KU ORYX  60 -47  Kisumu Lady Bucks