Africa-Press – Kenya. Newly-crowned Nyanza basketball champions Ng’iya Girls target a ticket to the East Africa Secondary Schools Championships during the national Term One Games in Machakos next month.
The national Term One Games will be held at Machakos Boys’ and Machakos Girls’ from April 6 to 14. The East Africa championships will be at Bukedia Comprehensive College and Amus College in Uganda from August 14 to 25.
Ng’iya coach Naftali Ambala said: “The celebrations are over. We now focus on the national championships, where we have been handed a tough pool (‘A’) alongside national champions Butere Girls.”
Also in Pool ‘A’ are Mpesa Academy and Buruburu Girls. Pool ‘B’ has multiple national champions Kaya Tiwi, Ikutha Girls from Eastern and representatives from Rift Valley and North Eastern regions.
The Rift Valley championships are ongoing while the North Eastern competition will be held in Wajir on April 4 – 5.
“It’s a tough group but we can compete favourably. Butere are the favourites to finish top of the group. Our target is to qualify for the semis,” said Ambala.
“We have played and lost narrowly to Buruburu Girls but since then, we have trained hard and improved. We have never played against Mpesa Foundation Academy. I’m unsure about them but we are ready to conquer them.”
“We will approach each game differently,” added Ambala.
Ng’iya Girls’, captained by Tracy Sally, overcame a stubborn Nyakach Girls’ 44-41 in a nail-biting final at Kisumu School during the Nyanza championships.
Ng’iya Girls thrashed Asumbi Girls 37-19 In the semis while Nyakach beat then-defending champions Ototo Mixed 63-31.
Asumbi settled for third after seeing off Ototo Mixed 35-29 in the play-off. Ng’iya Girls are also the Eliud Owalo Foundation basketball tournament champions.
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