The national men’s basketball team have been knocked out of the ongoing AfroCan Basketball Tournament in Luanda, Angola after losing 55-46 to Morocco in their quarterfinal tie on Thursday afternoon.
Morans began the game on a bad note, losing 17-10 and 17-12 in the first and second quarters before recovering to win 15-9 in the third quarter.
With the scores at 34-22 in favour of the North Africans, the home boys came out guns blazing and pinned the opponents of the wall thanks to a two-pointer and three-pointer in quick succession by Ulinzi Warriors’ Eric Mutoro.
Victor Bosire added another 3-pointer to bring the scores to 35-30, right after Morocco’s Kevin Bruno Franceschi had scored one of his two free throws.
A couple of turnovers and fouls by the Kenyans, however, allowed their opponents to regain control of the match and extend their lead to 42-30 before a jump shot by Fidel Okoth reduced the parity between the two teams.
With two minutes to the end of the penultimate quarter, Mutoro scored another two-point jump shot and a three-pointer to bridge the scores to 43-37 and swing the momentum in Kenya’s favour.