All or nothing for Thunder in Game Two of league playoffs
Last season’s Kenya Basketball Federation (KBF) men’s Premier League losing semi-finalists Nairobi City Thunder have one more chance to keep their title hopes alive after losing their Game One quarters fixture to seventh-seeded Eldonets at the weekend.
Having finished the regular season in second place, Thunder headed to the fixture as favourites despite having lost to Eldonets in the regular season’s second leg played at the same venue and were out to make amends but it was never to be as they lost 63-53.
“It is a win or goes home situation for us in Game Two this weekend. We played our game but Eldonets played better than us. We had turnovers and missed layups but our shots, even the simple ones, were just not dropping and thus the loss,” said Thunder coach Sadat Gaya.
Eldonets head to Game Two of the best-of-three quarter-finals with a 1-0 advantage but Thunder will have home-court advantage as they seek to send the fixture to the Game Three decider.
“We played our game away and did not win but I don’t see us changing our play in the next match. We just need to make use of all our chances then fight to clinch a semis slot in Game Three,” added Gaya.
Meanwhile, Kisumu Lakeside will also be playing catch-up when they travel to Nairobi for Game Two, having lost Game One by one basket in an 80-78 outcome against Ulinzi Warriors.
Playing away in Kisumu, Warriors took the first quarter 25-22 but Lakeside won the second 17-15 for the two sides to be separated by one point going to the half time break.
The soldiers extended the lead to five points at the end of the third quarter, the gap helping them survive a last rally from the hosts, scoring 18 against Warriors’ 15 for the two-point loss.
