WBL-AQ: No room for mistakes as KPA, Hawks head to quarters
Reading Time: 2min | Wed. 30.10.24. | 15:42
It is familiar foes on both ends of the court as the Kenyan sides look to have a representative in Dakar in December
Holders Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) and Kenya Basketball Federation (KBF) women’s league champions Equity Hawks have their eyes set on making the Last Four at the ongoing Women's Basketball League-Africa (WBL-Africa) Zone Five Qualifiers.
The two sides finished second in their respective groups, the bankers behind Rwanda Energy Group (REG) in Group C and KPA behind APR in Group B, having lost to the two Rwandese sides.
As fate would have it, the two Kenyan sides find themselves facing off internationally, a repeat of the last Africa Women’s Basketball League (AWBL) quarters that KPA won.
However, the reigning African silver medalists lost to the Bankers 3-2 in last season's KBF playoff final. This will be a different ball game, all the same as both sides have bolstered their squads.
Ben Oluoch's Hawks got their campaign off with a 73-51 win over Burundi's Gladiators before going down 86-73 to the reigning silver medalists REG. They bounced back to an 87-48 victory and will be looking to ride on that momentum in the knockout stages.
"We have to focus on having our best players on the court and performing well, as much as we can, since the competition gets tougher now," coach Oluoch offered.
On their part, KPA, the defending champions who went all the way to the final in last year’s competition, the AWBL held in Alexandria, Egypt, played two matches in the group phase.
The Antony Ojukwu-coached side run the scores in their opener against Ethiopia's Hawassa City for a 128-36 victory before falling to APR 96-76.
"We had two days of rest and that has helped us with preparations for the quarters. We will correct our mistakes from the APR match and keep what worked. The most important thing is to have the players confident and play our game.
We slipped in the group stage but we don't have that luxury now. We are the champions and should play like one. We are raring to go with every player physically ready for the knockouts. I still believe we are favourites but we cannot get overconfident," Ojukwu told Mozzart Sport.
