KPA eye Alexandria's scalp in Fiba event
KPA guard Lennox Wanje (centre) is gaurded by Meghan Yamo and Simon Wambua of Kenyatta University Pirates during their Kenya Basketball Federation men's Premier League match at KPA Makande Gymnasium in Mombasa on October 29, 2022.
What you need to know:
- They qualified for the last eight as third-ranked side in their pool behind Inter Clube and Costa do Sol.
- Sporting thrashed ASC Villle de Dakar (Senegal) 66-50 and APR (Rwanda) 89-68 and then lost 79-70 against Ferroviario Maputo to complete their group in second spot behind Ferroviario.
Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) and Egypt's Sporting Alexandria renew their rivalry in the quarterfinals of the Fiba Africa Women’s Champions Cup in Maputo, Mozambique on Thursday.
These two met in the Africa 5 Five final in early October in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania where KPA lost 78-67.
“We have a Zone 5 derby against Sporting tomorrow. It will be a repeat of the final. We are ready for the game. It is a game which we will approach with a lot of caution,” KPA head coach Anthony Ojukwu said on Wednesday.
“I believe they have improved since we last played them. We have also improved a lot. These are two great teams, so I expect to see a good game from both teams."
Ojukwu noted that it was time for the former Zone 5 winners to exact revenge and break the jinx of not reaching the semi-final stage.
KPA’s best performance at the annual competition is a fifth place finish in Luanda, Angola in November 2017 when they floored GS Petroliers from Algeria 70-54 in the ranking match.
Ojukwu is however sweating on the fitness of Natalie Akinyi and Nigeria’s Ifunaya Okoro.
“They got some knocks in yesterday’s game against C.N.S.S. (DR Congo). They didn't train today. I’m waiting for the doctor’s report to see if they will be available tomorrow,” said Ojukwu.
On their way to the quarter-final, KPA suffered back-to-back defeats in their opening two matches against defending champions Inter Clube (Angola) 76-50 and Mozambican side Costa do Sol 73-62, before seeing off Energie BBC (Benin) 83-45 and C.N.S.S. 69-59 respectively in Group “A”.
They qualified for the last eight as third-ranked side in their pool behind Inter Clube and Costa do Sol.
Sporting thrashed ASC Villle de Dakar (Senegal) 66-50 and APR (Rwanda) 89-68 and then lost 79-70 against Ferroviario Maputo to complete their group in second spot behind Ferroviario.
Quarter-final schedule (From 13:30 onwards):
APR (Rwanda) v Inter Clube (Angola)
KPA (Kenya) v Sporting (Egypt)
Ville de Dakar (Senegal) v Costa do Sol (Mozambique)
C.N.S.S. (DR Congo) v Ferroviario Maputo (Mozambique)
