Review: Equity Dumas, Thunder through to KBF League semis

Equity Dumas and City Thunder are the first two teams to qualify for the semifinal playoffs of the Kenya National Basketball Premier League.

The two teams sailed through after winning 2-0 each in the quarterfinal playoffs over the weekend in the men’s premier league matches.

Equity Dumas won their Game Two 76-64 on Sunday after another win of 87-68 of Game One on Friday against University of Nairobi’s Terror.

The Bankers head coach David Maina lauded his team for finishing the series 2-0 as the focus now shifts to the semis.

“We are happy to have finished the series on a 2-0 as we didn’t want to go to Game Three, so that the players can have more resting time. We are however not going to rest. We start preparations for the semis immediately because it’s not going to be an easy game with whomever we meet at that stage,” Maina said.

The Dumas dominated the first three quarters before falling in the last one. They started well, winning the opening quarter 16-07 before winning the second 19-14, as they led the first half 35-21.

In a high scoring third quarter, Equity won 29-26 before Terror pulled away with a 17-12 victory in the fourth quarter as the bankers carried the day at the final buzzer.

Victor Ochieng, Lenson Kisia and Victor Bosire dropped a combined 42 points as the Dumas cruised to victory.

On the other hand, Collins Nyameya, Agulet Malek and Dominic Adero were shining light for the Terror as they dropped a combined 40 points.

On their side, Thunder completed a revenge on their rivals Blades after beating them narrowly 62-61 in Game Two on Sunday. They had also won 64-57 on Friday and therefore qualified on 2-0 wins.

In last season, the two rivals also met at the same stage where Blades eliminated Thunder with a 2-0 win.

Thunder are likely to meet defending champions Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) in the semis, who are one foot into the last four after defeating Kenyatta University’ Pirates  80-62 on Saturday in Game One.

Thunder head coach Sadat Gaya praised his opponents for giving them a tough test.

“I first of all want to congratulate the Blades team and the head coach for doing such an amazing job, and being a tough opponent.  We still have a lot of work to do and areas we need to clean up. In the next two weeks as we prepare for the semis, we will need to correct our offensive and defensive mistakes such that by the time we face our next opponent we be sharper,” Gaya said.

In their Sunday’s game, Thunder started off badly losing 16-18 to the students before winning the second quarter 21-17 to go to halftime leading narrowly 37-35.

After the break Blades seemed to have realized their mistakes giving out a great fight as they won third quarter 17-13 but Thunder had a different game plan as they overpowered Strathmore in the last quarter winning 12-09.

WEEKEND QUARTERFINAL PLAYOFFS RESULTS

Thunder 64-57 Blades- MP

Eldonets Platinum 60-71 Ulinzi Warriors- MP

KU Pirates 62-80 KPA- MP

JKUAT LYNX 24-96 KPA- WP

Storms 29-45 Strathmore Swords- WP

Thunder 62-61 Strathmore Blades- MP

Equity Dumas 74-64 Terror- MP