KEN - Nairobi and Mombasa teams crowned 11th Inter Cities champions

ARUSHA (Inter Cities champions) - Kenyan teams Nairobi and Mombasa were over the weekend crowned the 2009 East and Central Africa Inter Cities champions.

The Kenyans defied all the odds and a roaring home support to take home the 11th regional cities titles in contrasting styles during the final matches played at the Soweto Grounds, Arusha

Nairobi...........53 Dar..........27

Nairobi reclaimed the title after showing class in their return match against Dar. Emma Nyakweba nailed the opening basket and banked a three pointer off the board for a 5-2 lead. But Dar recovered and locked the scores 5-5. After Hilda Indasi fast break ignited a run making the scores 7-5, Dar were left trailing the rest of the way.

Nairobi were up 13-5 in the first quarter and maintained a good run in the second where the scores stood at 17-5 for a strong 32-16 edge at the break. And the players doing the damage were captain Angela Luchivya and assistant Caroline Achieng "Majeng".

After the intermission, it was business as usual as Nairobi key a strong defense pilling on the points for a 44-21 charge in the third. The upbeat winners then finished off their opponents by simply running out the fourth with a low scoring 9-6 advantage.

Dar, who had recovered from a 30-7 deficit to suprise Nairobi 65-64 in the opener on their opening day, had no answer for a confident Nairobi as coach Ben Oluoch seemed to have had his defensive tactics working well this time round.

The hard working duo of Luchivya and Achieng led the way superbly. Achieng named MVP led the tally with 12 points, 12 rebounds six steals. Indasi scored 11 while Luchivya contributed eight points, four rebounds and six assists and the impressive Faith Owich tallied another eight.

"After they won the firs encounter by a point, I knew where they hurt us and we had to work on this in our training and this was the key as we cut their inside plays and made them work hard for every shot taken." said a happy Oluoch.

Nairobi are also winners of the tournament in 1999, 2000, 20001, 20002, 20006 and 2007. They skipped last year's show due to funds. They started their campaign of a three team event in a slippery note losing the opener 64-65 to Dar .

Mombasa..........63 Dar............62

Mombasa dethroned Dar es Salaam 63-62 with a gritty show in this duel that went to the wire with Musa Odari sinking the game clincher from the line with fifteen seconds to play. This was a repeat of last year's show where the host Dar won 68-63.

Mombasa got off to a low start trailing 15-18 in the first quarter. They recovered 12-8 in the second as brothers Musa, Furaha Odari and Dan Okwirri showed their skills to the delight of the crowd.

The third quarter was well balanced as Dar gave as good as they got and even took a 16-17 cushion. But the last was a give and take affair after the losers had taken a 55-48 edge on three unanswered fast breaks.

Mombasa clawed back with two three pointers from Dan Okwirri tying the scores 60-60 and tied again 62-62 before Musa heroics from the line gave Jimnah Kimani's boys a well deserved crown.

Musa led the scoring tally with 17 points and Furaha had 11 while MVP Phillip Amenyi was a rock on defense. For Dar, Charles Mahere scored 18 as did team mate Gilbert Patungi. Both teams battled in last year's finals in Dar

In the semi final matches, Mombasa recovered well to lock out Kampala 67-54 while Dar nailed debutants Harare 66-49. " We appreciate the level of competition and the level of officiating. It was a great championships and we vow to be back next year and will bring the ladies team." said Harare's Godfery Chakurangi.

A total of eight mens teams and three women's team took part in the championships grouped in Pool A were - Mombasa, Meru, Harare and Tanga while Pool B had- Dar, Mogadishu, Kampala and Arusha.

Full results: Arusha 74 Mogadishu 59; Arusha 54 Dar 85; Dar 58 Kampala 45; Dar 55 Mogadishu 28; Kampala 51 Arusha 37; Kampala 83 Mogadishu 35; Harare 45 Mombasa 54; Tanga 47 Meru 31; Tanga 52 Meru 3; Mombasa 138 Meru 33; Kampala 51 Arusha 37; Arusha 59 Meru 38; Tanga 59 Mogadishu 55.
Women: Dar 151 Arusha 13: Nairobi 93 Arusha 02.

Semi finals: Mombasa 67 Kampala 54; Dar 66 Harare 49
Finals Women : Nairobi 53 Dar 27 Finals Men: Mombasa 63 Dar 62
In the classification results:

Third/Fourth place:Harare beat Kampala 53 Kampala 44
Fifth/ Sixth place: Tanga 74 Arusha 73.
Seventh/Eighth place: Mogadishu 67 Meru 42.

Dann OWERE
FIBA Africa