KPA down Warriors to reclaim KBF men's title

Job Byron gave a man-of the match show, scoring 19 points to propel Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) to the Kenya Basketball Federation (KBF) men's league championship. 

The dockers put up an impressive performance to win the match 80-61 as the men joined their women's side in lifting the 2021 title. 

"We are happy for this victory and for the championship. We had worked hard for it, Warriors put up a fight but in the end we have it. 

Coming into the finalatchz we had to correct on the mistakes of Game Four and we effectively cut off their scorers but for Eric Mutoro and James Mwangi who managed to gain access," said KPA head coach Sammy Kiki. 

Mwangi, Mutoro, David Ouma, Victor Bosire and William Ochieng were handed the starting berth while KPA entrusted the jump off to Victor Odendo, Martin Kitong'o, Ken Wachira, Job Byron and Lennox Wanje. 

KPA led 10- 5 after five minutes of action with Byron going to the free throw line for a chance to make it 12 , missing both. Wachira missed once from the line to make it 11-5. 

Balozi asked for his first timeout with the score reading 13-5 but the soldiers were again trailing at 16-8 with Wanje hammering home a three for 19-8. 

Mwangi reduced the deficit to eight from beyond the arc with Ochieng adding another trey for 19-14. Kitong'o had a three-point play to take KPa's score to 24. 

Warriors reduced the deficit to five but Tobias Odhiambo, off the bench made it 26-19 as the whistle went for end of the period. 

With 6.40 to play in the second period Warriors were still trailing 28-21 with Byron going to the line but could only manage to stretch the lead to eight points at 29-21. 

Costly mistakes saw Warriors allow a six points gap at 29-23 double with 3.50 to play to 35-26, most of the points coming off three unnecessary turnovers. 

The difference was back to eight points at 39-31 with 49 seconds on the clock but KPA converted once from the line before the half time whistle to carry a nine-point advantage to the break. 

From the dressing room, KPA's Odhiambo and Kitong'o opened the scoring to take the score to 45-32. Bosire scored a three to reduce the deficit to ten but Wachira contributed a trey for a 13 points advantage that was made 15 by Byron on the paint. 

With five five minutes on the clock, KPA had stretched the lead to 16 at 53-35 and further to 20 at 55-35. Byron and Wachira continued to run rings on Warriors as the third quarter ended with the soldiers trailing by 20 points at 63-43. 

Three minutes into the final period and KPA had not scored a point while Warriors only shot was from the line for 63-44. Warriors were clinical on defence and despite their shots not dropping as well as they would have liked, they had the difference down to 15 with six minutes to play. 

Byron emerged top scorer in the match at 19 while Mwangi top scored for the soldiers at 17. Odhiambo and Wachira contributed 15 each while Lennox Wanje had 11. Mutoro was the other player to hit double digits at 15.