Author: ELKANA KUHENGA
AfricaPress-Tanzania: THE race for the Regional Basketball League last two climaxes today Harbours Club court in Dar es Salaam after the last semifinal play-off between Kurasini Heat and ABC.
The two clubs are forced to play their fifth play-off match after tying 2-2 in the four-match play off.
The winners of the fifth match will meet JKT who have already qualified after seeing off Oilers. JKT secured a place in the final after defeating Oilers 3-0.
They recorded 59-46 win in the first game and went on to win 65-54 in the second. They landed to the final after beating their opponents 84-63 in their third game.
During their successful campaign, JKT pointer Baraka Sadick who registered 27points, eight rebounds and five assists was the Most Valuable Player(MVP) in their first win.
Jimmy Brown of JKT was the second player from the team to win MVP award after excelling in the second and third play-off games.
Brown bagged 14 points, 18 rebounds, four assists and six blocks in the second encounter while in the third game, he carded 16 points, 17 rebounds and 2 assists.
The Saturday’s game will surely be intense as the both teams have displayed a lot of quality in each game they played.
In four games they have played, Kurasini Heat won two games by 76-68 and 75-72 with Mwalimu Heri displaying an outstanding performance in both of them.
In the first game he fired 24 points and 5 rebounds; while in the second encounter he had 17 points, 11 rebounds, seven assists and two blocks.
ABC also won two games, they registered 72-65 win in the first game and won 86-78 in the second one. Moses Jackson and Philbert Mwaipungu were the two game stars when ABC won.
Moses Jackson collected 19 points and 12 rebounds; Mwaipungu had 28 points with five points collected by three pointers, five rebounds and four assists.
Apart from the men’s semis there is also women’s league that has already named its finalists. The top teams are JKT Stars and DB Lioness.
JKT Stars hammered Vijana Queens by three straight victories while the DB Lioness saw off Ukonga Queens with a 3-0 victory. Jesca Julius of JKT Stars emerged the MVP in all three semis play-off.
She bagged 32 points, eight rebounds and two assists on their first victory 80-39;then went on to record 14 points and nine rebounds in 46-43 win before adding 26 points and three rebounds in 65-57 game.
Taudencia Oluoch of Lioness won the MVP award twice in their first and second game while Jasmine Bablie was named the third match MVP.
