Nairobi — Nairobi City Thunder continued with their unbeaten run in the Kenya Basketball Federation (KBF) Men's Premier League, with a commanding 82-57 victory over defending champions Kenya Ports Authority, to go 19-0 top of the standings.
Thunder have now completed home and away sweeps of all their top title rivals, having beaten KPA earlier on in Mombasa and now in Nairobi. They have also completed doubles over Ulinzi Warriors and Equity Dumas, who are their closest challengers for the crown.
"I mean we have been doing well game by game and the boys are really stepping up. We have not dropped in our levels in each game and I am proud of the work that they have been doing," said Thunder's coach Brad Ibs.
Looking back to the convincing win over KPA, Ibs said it was tough and not as easy as the final score made it look.
"They are a good team and played really good defense. It wasn't easy. We had two players really stand out today. Ariel (Okall) did a really good game and so did Garang (Ding). He is a player who can virtually do anything on the court," the tactician noted.
Both Garang and Okall were given standing ovations when they were substituted after giving monstrous performances in the duel.
Okall had a game high 23 points while Garang also had double digits, with 13 to his name.
KPA wewre dominant from the word go with back to back threes from Faheem Juma, Ariel Ortega and Garang getting them a 9-0 scoring run in the opening quarter prompting Cliff Owuor in the KPA bench to call for a time out.
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KPA gave some fight and they ended the quarter with a three-point deficit, the game at 21-18. They couldn't keep the spirit in the second quarter though as KPA was completely dominant, going into halftime with a 19-point lead, scores at 49-30.
It was the same story in Q3 as Thunder completely outplayed the holders, Oka's dunk putting the scores at 63-48 with the final 10 to come.
Thunder now lead the log with 38 points.
Meanwhile, Equity Dumas survived a scare from University of Nairobi's Terror before edging them out 59-52 in the early tip off. The University boys had put in a shift in the third quarter, outscoring Equity 19-9, but the finalists from last season held on for yet another nervy win.
They had Congolese Joel Ntambwe to thank, with the shooting guard bailing them out especially in the last quarter.
