Strathmore Blades can only get sharper, says Ochieng after weekend defeat

Strathmore Blades head coach Tony Ochieng maintains his team will soon gel and perform better in the upcoming matches. This is after the Blades fell 60-86 to former champions Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) at the weekend in a league match.

“We were testing waters especially with the new players that I have recruited. We lost despite playing very well in the first and second quarter and leading by four points.

My team has injuries; my key players will be undergoing some surgeries even though I have some new faces in the team that I have recruited [from my team two which plays in division one], 2 he explained.

“It’s just a matter of team chemistry building,” Ocheing said.

The weekend defeat was their first of the season and Ochieng believes all is not lost.

 “Moving forward we hope that we can gel in the coming matches, next weekend. But, generally it was a good game, we had some positive character in terms of rebounding where we were spacing up well although I feel we would have done better especially on the free throw shots,” Ochieng added.

Blades have also made some signings including Jok Deng from Eldonets, Dickens Ochieng (unattached), Elsie Mose and Francis Wafula from Blades development team.

The varsity side has also lost some players including Ken Dwalo who joined Equity Dumas, and Ouche Brando and Kenya Gabriel who joined league newcomers Stanbic.