Mercy Wanyama wins the Jump ball against Bella Mureketete of Rwanda
Assistant Mellisa Akinyi guided Kenya to a 79-52 victory with a monstrous performance in the semi finals of the FIBA Afrobasket Zone 5 Qualifiers.
The Rwandese who were hot favorites started the game from where they left in the preliminaries where they beat Kenya 77-45. They Capitalized on Kenyans three quick turnovers by the point guard to take an early 8-0 lead. Coach Mayienga Called a timeout and brought in Captain Rose Ouma, for Natalie Mwangale, who calmed down the play. Kenya had their own run scoring 23 un-answered points. Ended the quarter with a buzzer beater 3poijt shit from Mellisa Akinyi to have a 25-11 lead at the end of the quarter.
Natalie Akinyi defending Nicomyiza of Rwanda.
Sifa ineza breaks away after a steal as Natalie(left) and wanyama chase her.
In the second quarter the tempo never changed with Captain Rose finding Felmas Koranga with a nice entry pass to open the scoring. Mellisa Akinyi hit two quick steals and converted them to extend kenyans lead. The Rwandese decided to switch to a full court press defence but unlike their previous game in the preliminaries, the kenyans held their mettle as Mercy Wanyama bossed the defensive board while Victoria Reynolds was hitting the Rwandese with timely Perimeter shot. The lead grew up to 25points. The Rwandese ladies cut it to 20points in the last minute through a hard fourth defence to go into the interval trailing 42-22.
The Lionesses picked up from where they left when they got back in the second half. Mellisa Akinyi who was having a hot hand hit another 3point shot to send the bench into a frenzy. Victoria Reynolds added 4more points as the lead stretched to 33.
The only Silver lining for the Rwandese side was their captain, Tierra Henderson who kept tormenting the kenyans with her penetration drives and perimeter shots. She was 100% on the freethrow line and looked like she was not going to stop. Sadly her heroics were not enough to help Rwanda as they Fell 79-52 to Kenya.
Speaking after the game, The player of the match, Mellisa Akinyi attributed the win to better preparation and self belief.
" We watched the video of our previous game against Rwanda and reviewed our mistakes. We ensured we rectified the mistakes we made in that preliminary game and pushed harder. When we went down 8-0 at the beginning we reminded ourselves in the timeout to leave everything we had in the courts because it was like our last game and we did."
Mellisa Akinyi Scored 21points added 4assits and 3 steals as Victoria Reynolds added 16points,6rebounds and 3steals. Tierra Henderson scored 22 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists and 4 steals for Rwanda while Bella Murekatete added 13points, 10rebounds and 3steals .
Kenya will now play Egypt in the finals slated for Sunday 17/7/2021 at 1800h CAT at the Kigali Arena in Kigali.
