Friday, September 9
•JKL Lady Dolphins 57-37 KCCA Leopards
•Nam Blazers 81-56 KIU Titans
Sunday, September 11 (YMCA)
•UCU Lady Canons Vs KIU Rangers (Game One) – 12pm
•KCCA Leopards Vs JKL Lady Dolphins – 2pm
•UCU Canons Vs City Oilers (Game One) – 4pm
•KIU Titans Vs Nam Blazers – 6pm
Nam Blazers dominated KIU Titans to take game one of the semifinals of the ongoing Tusker-Lite sponsored NBL Playoffs.
The top seed were the favourites coming into this match up but it was expected that KIU will put up a strong challenge.
But after a 81-56 game one loss on Friday at Lugogo, many have started to feel that KIU Titans may not avoid a sweep in this best of five semifinal matchup.
The Titans will rue a poor start after trailing 19-8 at the end of the first quarter.
But they dug deep and gave themselves a fighting stance when they knitted a 11-0 run to trail by three points midway through third quarter.
In fact, Fidel Okoth could have brought the game within just a point but missed an easy lay up!
Blazers then benefited from Titans poor show and poor decisions from thereafter, and they never looked back before sealing a deserved victory.
David Deng Dikong scored a game high 28 points while Ariel Okall led with a double of double of 17 points and 18 rebounds.
Paul Odongo had given Nam Blazers rhythm and ended up with 10 points and five assists.
Fidel contributed 20 points and 12 rebounds while Stanley Mugerwa (19 points) was the other KIU Titans players to reach double digits.
It was a good show from Nam Blazers who got the job done even with their best player in regular season, Amisi Saidi Carmelo managing just 8 points and 3 rebounds.
KIU Titans, who had a good backing from their crowd, will feel they could have done better in a game they missed 11 of their 14 three-point attempts and committed 28 turnovers while out-rebounded 43-55.
And they have just a day to rest before Sunday’s Game two at YMCA.
Nam Blazers will just hope to keep the same momentum going forward but there were some lapses in concentration especially in the third quarter.
Winner of this tie will meet either City Oilers or UCU Canons in the Best of Seven Finals series.
There was no contest in the Women’s matchup between two-time defending champions JKL and KCCA Leopards as the former emerged Game One winners.
KCCA just failed to get going including a third quarter where they just managed only four points.
Taudencia Oluoch had 18 points while Hope Akello came up with 12 points and 22 rebounds for the Dolphins.
There was nothing to admire from Ali Mavita’s KCCA who earlier needed game three to eliminate Angels in the quarters.
