Nairobi City Thunder coach Ibs chuffed at morale warm-up win over All Stars

National Basketball men’s Premier League champions Nairobi City Thunder’s head coach Brad Ibs is pleased with his side after they picked a morale-boosting win over Kenya All Stars in a build-up match at the weekend.

Thunder who bagged the gong unbeaten last term secured a 111-83 victory over their opponents at the Nyyo Gymnasium in Nairobi and coach Ibs says his charges had a good offensive play.

“For a sort of first-time competitions since the season ended, our guys seemed to gel well, we played well offensively, we had some great shooting efforts from Ogechi, Ongwae, Iroegbu, Diing, Adera etc, we really shot well and it was exciting to see,” he said.

The Thunder boss, despite the win, also hailed his opponents noting that Coach Abel Non had assembled ‘great players’ across the league.

Thunder dominated three quarters winning 26-13, 31-18 and 32-29 in the first, third and fourth quarters while All Stars won the second quarter with a slender 23-22win.

 “I think the coaches did a great job of putting together a roster of very competitive and athletic guys and I think they did a very good job of challenging us. The Kenya All Stars team rebounded very well; they gave us an opportunity to see what we need to work on,” Ibs said.

The Thunder have already added six new signings to their roster ahead of the new season. The six include William Sidney Davis II, known as Will who is a Power Forward, Michel Diogoye Diouf also known as Bigmich, also a Power Forward, from Senegal, and Uchenna "U.C." Iroegbu, an American-Nigerian Point Guard, who will be instrumental in the Road to Basketball Africa League Qualifiers.

The other three are small forward Tylor Ongwae, point-guard Derrick Ogechi and point-guard Eugene Adera.