Zetech Sparks head coach Maurice Obilo was over the moon after the Sparks demolished heavy weights and giants Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) to win the inaugural Eliud Owalo Foundation Invitational Basketball Tournament that brought together elite premier league clubs. Zetech won the women’s trophy after defeating KPA 59-50 in the final played at the Nyayo Gymnasium on 12 th May 2024.
Obilo said the tournament came at the right time as they plan to play their last three premier league matches before heading to playoffs of the Kenya National Women’s Basketball League.“I can say the tournament was good, it came at a very good time helping us on our preparations to play the playoffs and also finish the three games that are remaining in the regular season so it was a good timing. All the games were exciting and they were tough. What we can say is that it’s a learning experience as we move on. Winning the tournament was massive, was something that we are all happy about and we really celebrated,” Obilo said.
At the same time, Obilo affirmed the need for a good build-up in readiness for the playoffs. “I know we can’t say much about it, we just need to build on that confidence, walking into the playoffs, otherwise the whole tournament was very helpful to us,” Obilo added.
Zetech won the first quarter 14-12 before another impressive run in the second quarter [17-11] going to lead 31-23 at half time. After the break, the Dockers came back stronger winning 20-14 but the students had a different game plan as they cemented their victory with a 14-07 win in the last quarter with the game ending 59-50 at the final buzzer.
Red-hot Mitchell Soukoujou scored game high 20 points for Zetech while Medina Okot, Angela Akinyi and Christine Akinyi scored 26 points combined for the students.
En route to the final, Zetech Sparks defeated Equity Hawks 75-51 in the semi-final shortly after beating Strathmore Swords and USIU Flames 63-46 and 59-56 respectively in the preliminaries.In the men’s category, Nairobi City Thunder emerged champions after defeating Equity Dumas 80-71 in the final.