South Africa: Nairobi City Thunder Strikes to Silence Joburg Giants At Home in Bal Kalahari Conference

29 March 2026
Capital FM (Nairobi)
By Alex Isaboke

Pretoria, South Africa — Kenyan champions Nairobi City Thunder bounced back in the Basketball Africa League (BAL) Kalahari Conference to silence home team Johannesburg Giants 71-65 in the presence of their fans at a packed SunBet Arena in Pretoria, South Africa on Sunday .

Thunder made the amends after losing 85-90 to neighbours Dar City in their opening game on Saturday.

Youngster Garang Diing stole the show in the first half despite not starting, coming on to record a massive 12 points that inspired Thunder take the opening half 43-31.

Even though he did not score any points in the first half, Eugene Adero contributed to Thunder's success with 5 rebounds combined with Jawachi Joseph Nzeakor who also had 5.

The Giants got the game underway with the first basket, taking Thunder almost four minutes to pull back courtesy of Ariel Okall, then point guard Derrrick Ogechi added two more points before American Lance Thomas scored a beauty dunk to see the Kenyan charges lead 7-5.

The game proceded to an end to end action with the introduction of South Sudanese Diing, who wasted to time, making an impact with two quick three-pointers to ensure the Brad Ibs coached side take a comfatable 18-13 win in the first quarter.

 

Read the original article on Capital FM.

Tagged:
Copyright © 2026 Capital FM. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.

AllAfrica publishes around 600 reports a day from more than 90 news organizations and over 500 other institutions and individuals, representing a diversity of positions on every topic. We publish news and views ranging from vigorous opponents of governments to government publications and spokespersons. Publishers named above each report are responsible for their own content, which AllAfrica does not have the legal right to edit or correct.

Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica. To address comments or complaints, please Contact us.