The wait is over! Warriors take on KPA in KBF men's final

It has been over a month since the women's champions were crowned but the men had to wait longer as organisers put their house in order.

The two sides played their semi final matches in February, by now, the new season would have been almost a month in, but, finally, the KBF men's final is on. 

Kenya Basketball Federation (KBF) men's champions Ulinzi Warriors are in Mombasa where they play hosts Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) in Game One and Two of the best-of-five final series on Saturday and Sunday respectively. 

For anyone who has followed the sport, locally, closely, they are expecting a thriller and rightly so. The soldiers, out to defend the title they won in 2019 face the tough test of a dockers' side that is done sitting in the cold. 

In the regular league season, Warriors dominated the fixture, completing a double over Sammy Kiki's men to be the only side that defeated the former champions. Warriors lost two matches too, but their loses came in the hands of Kisumu Lakeside and Nairobi City Thunder. 

"We have a working approach to our matches against KPA and we will use the same strategies that worked in the regular season. We have not been in league action for over a month but luckily, the players have remaining competitive as we held our in-house competition within that time. 

This means we have match fitness. We also got a chance to regroup, two weeks ago, and have a full-house training with those who were not involved in the military games we had. We are ready for the matches," said Warriors' skipper Eric Mutoro. 

While the dockers have their best available for duty, including Nick Ogol who has since recovered from an injury he picked in the semis against Equity Dumas, Warriors will miss the services of their skipper Mutoro and forward John Washika and Valentine Nyakinda.

Mutoro and Nyakinda, are serving bans following ejections in the semis against Strathmore Blades. The skipper has already missed one match, Game Three, against Blades and is set to miss Game One of the final. 

Nyakinda is supposed to miss the two matches in Mombasa for being ejected in Game Three of the semis. He is, however, already out of the country, having joined a Rwandese side and thus unavailable for the final. Washika is nursing a recurring knee injury. 

Previously, the team has been forced to play with only their military-affliated players as their civilian players skipped the quarters away match to Lakeside. Victor Bosire and Nyakinda were available for subsequent matches. It is yet to be seen whether all the players will be available for the final. 

"We are ready for action. I am working with the squad that is available. This is something we have done before and the depth we have allows us to rest easy, stick to our game plan and fight for the away wins," said Warriors head coach William Balozi. 

On his part, KPA skipper Martin Kitong'o says they have been ready for a long time and aanna to make it a quick win. The dockers have been in residential camp in Mombasa for close to a month.