Kapenguria storm semis: Aga Khan also reach last four in basketball showdown

SECONDARY SCHOOL GAMES 2016 Kisumu Day's Mathew Nehemia prepare to dunk as Shadrack Philan of Kapenguria High School during the Kenya Secondary Schools Sports Term 1 Games at Friends Kamusinga Boys High School, Nzoia region in Bungoma County on Wednesday, April 13, 2016. [PHOTO: JONAH ONYANGO/STANDARD]

Kapenguria Boys and Aga Khan basketball teams yesterday booked semi-finals slots at the ongoing Brookside Dairy secondary schools national Term One games at Friends School Kamusinga.

Unrelenting Kapenguria, who are representing Nzoia Region laboured to a 48-42 victory over Kisumu Boys in a grueling pool B match that was decided in extra time.

The tightly contested match had ended 39-39 in regular time.

Kapenguria captain Achuil Leer was outstanding with 22 points while Patrick Paul was the lead scorer for Kisumu with 13 points.

Leer told Feverpitch there is no stopping them as they seek to make it to the final and qualify for the East Africa games.

“We are determined to play in the finals and I believe that team work and fighting spirit will see us through,” Leer said.

He added that going into today’s tie against unbeaten Aga Khan their goal is to top the pool so that they can avoid Upper Hill who they also think will make it to the final.

“A victory in today’s match is very crucial to us because we want to meet Upper Hill in the finals. We want to play them and hopefully win because we are not intimidated by their past success,” he said.

The match was closely contested with both teams failing to score in the first minutes of the game.

Kisumu sunk the first basket, but it was Kapenguria who fought back to snatch the first quarter 12-9.

Kisumu, who were not willing to go down without a fight took the lead once again in the second quarter and held on to it to win 12-10 and they easily took the third set 12-6 while Kapenguria fought to take the fourth quarter 11-6.

Kapenguria went into extra time re-energised playing like it was just the beginning of the match scoring 9-3 to snatch victory.

In the other match, Aga Khan subjected Kangaru of Highlands to their second straight defeat locking them out of the title hunt with a 48-39 conquest.

The Coastal Boys had triumphed 32-28 against Lake Region champions Kisumu to register their first victory of the competition.

Aga Khan captain Brian Kimwatan said they need to be on top of their game in their tie against Kapenguria because they also want to top the pool.

“We want to remain unbeaten and top our group. We have to be at our best because our opponents are a very good side capable of upsetting us,” he said.