Road to BAL: Thunder strike Madagascar's GNBC to keep qualification hopes alive

A scintillating show by Nairobi City Thunder in the first half of their Road to BAL (Basketball Africa League) East Division Group D clash against Madagascar's GNBC gave the side a comfortable 96-60 victory. 

The Kenyan representatives were coming off an 89-88 loss to Burundi's Urunani in their second match of the five-team competition and needed to win against the Islanders to assure themselves of a fighting chance, for one of two slots available for the Elite 16. 

Despite making their debut in the qualifiers, Thunder were favourites against the Malagasy side that is making a third appearance. 

"We knew they are a really well coached team that plays together and are good on threes and we needed to stop that. They also have some key players led by Elly Randriamampionona ( scored 16 points, 8 rebounds and 5 assists), Solonirina Ndranto and Francis Ramanampamonjy Mory whose impact we had to minimise," coach Bradley Ibs offered.

Derrick Ogechi opened the scoring for Thunder, who had made one change in the starting lineup, replacing the injured William Sydney Davis II with Kenya Morans' Fidel Okoth. 

Thunder go down fighting against star-studded Urunani

The Kenyan side went on a 10-05 lead before Constant Fabrice Mandimbison made it a two-point game at 10-08. Mory gave GNBC the lead at 12-11, for the first time with 4.41 to play in the opening stanza. 

Albert Odero and Okall Koranga came off the bench to take Thunder on an 11-11-point run that saw them lead 22-11, forcing GNBC into a timeout but little changed as the latter scored 11 in just over five minutes on the floor to see his side lead 29-12 at the conclusion of the quarter. 

It took Thunder close to four minutes in the second quarter to make their first basket while allowing the Islanders to cut their lead from 17 to nine at 29-20. Uchenna Iroegbu and Ogechi, however, combined for seven points to see the Kenyan champions lead 36-20 halfway through the quarter. 

A 14-06 run in the remaining part of the period for Ibs charges gave them a comfortable 24-point lead heading to the half-time break. 

Road to BAL: MVP Albert Odero on why he chose Thunder over Burundi's Urunani

"Coming into the match we talked about turning offense into defense and wanted an high energy game which is not easy coming off a loss as tough as last night's. I am proud of the guys for how they responded. They showed a lot of character today," the tactician continued. 

The first half show proved crucial for the Kenyan side, who were subjected to their first defeat in over ten months by Urunani in game two, as GNBC played for a 24-23 third quarter for the match to head to the final stanza at 73-50 

Coach Ibs went with a majority of his bench players for the final quarter, still managing a 23-10 show for victory.