KPA knocked out of Fiba Africa Cup
Kenyatta University's Sylvia Chacha (left) attempts to steal the ball from Kenya Ports Authority's Selina Okumu during their Kenya Basketball Federation women Premier League match on October 2, 2021 at Nyayo National Stadium.
What you need to know:
- KPA, whose best performance remains fifth out of 12 teams in Luanda, Angola in November 2017, now drop to classification matches for positions five to eight.
- They will face APR from Rwanda on Friday at 13:30. APR lost 94-53 against Inter Clube from Angola in the first quarter-final of the day.
Kenya Ports Authority suffered another quarter-final heart-break at the FIBA Africa Women’s Champions Cup after losing 76-70 against Egypt’s Sporting Alexandria in a tightly-contested match in Maputo, Mozambique on Thursday.
The dockers, who were hoping to break into the semi-final stage for the first time, again fell short in the last four minutes.
Coach Anthony Ojukuwu's charges led the first quarter 16-15 and trailed 34-37 at the break after they were outscored 18-22 in the second period. There was no reprieve for the Kenyan side in the third quarter which Sporting led 21-16.
However, KPA had fought back to level 61-61 with 5:35 to go. KPA even led 63-61 after Madina Okot scored a two-pointer from a Natalie Akinyi assist seconds later after Akinyi had come on for Nigerian Ifunaya Okoro.
The lead was short-lived as Cierra Janay Dillard made a steal from a bad pass from Brenda Wasuda and scored a three-point jump shot to put Sporting 64-63 infront.
Selina Okumu briefly leveled the scores 64-64 after scoring the second of her two free throws.
However, there was no stopping Sporting after Shayla Cooper restored lead with a two-point jump shot from an Asrar Bakr assist, 66-64 with 3:06 left.
KPA asked for a timeout with 2:41 but this did little to revive their hopes as Reem Mousa stole a bad pass from Akinyi to score for 68-64.
Another turnover from Selina Okumu gave Sporting a chance to widen the gap to six points at 70-64 from an Asrar two-point jump shot. Asrar made a free-throw for 71-64 with 2:15 left.
It was now one-way traffic as Shayla Cooper made a layup to put Sporting 73-64 up with 1:44. Sporting scored their 11th straight point without reply after Cooper added another two-pointer for a 75-64 from Dillard assist with 1:16.
The KPA bench took another timeout with 1:10 left and brought on Wasuda for Selina Okumu. It worked briefly as Wasuda made a two-point jump shot for 66-75 from an Okoro assist.
But a foul on Fatma Aly by Okot saw the Africa Zone 5 winners add a free-throw for 76-66 with 41 seconds left.
Azibaye Theresa Mac-Dangosu drew a foul but made one of her two free throws to cut the deficit with one point.
Okoro then made a three jump shot for 70-76 with eight seconds left but it was too late for KPA to stage any comeback.
Okoro scored a game high 31 points, with Okot being KPA’s second best scorer on 11. Dillard and Cooper contributed 22 and 20 points for Sporting who defeated KPA 78-67 during the Zone 5 final in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania in early October.
KPA, whose best performance remains fifth out of 12 teams in Luanda, Angola in November 2017, now drop to classification matches for positions five to eight.
They will face APR from Rwanda on Friday at 13:30. APR lost 94-53 against Inter Clube from Angola in the first quarter-final of the day.
