Author: SULEIMAN JONGO
AfricaPress-Tanzania: BARAKA Sadick hit 16 points as Mbeya beat Coast Region 61-52 in the ongoing CRDB Taifa Cup taking place here at Chinangali courts.
Mwalimu Henry added 15 points more Mbeya to secure two important points ahead of the quarterfinal matches that start here today. Already Rukwa and Ilala have secured places for the quarterfinals in Group A as Temeke have managed to penetrate into best 16 stage from group D.
In the women’s group, Coast Region and Mwanza have made it through as other teams were waiting for their fates late yesterday.
The first quarter ended 14-8 in favour of Mbeya, but Coast applied all the skills they had in store to win the second quarter by 20-13 and led by 28-27 at breather. Pwani should thank their postman, Omary Sadick who has to a large extent engineered for his side’s hard fighting despite losing. He partnered well with Joseph Kideki to make sure that things did not get worse for their side.
The duo netted 18 and 15 points, respectively. In another match, Kilimanjaro edged Shinyanga by 62-56 in a very exciting duel. However, the tournament has been disrupted the ongoing torrential rains that ponder some parts of the country. Several matches have been affected as players have to wait for the drying of the courts for the resumption of matches.
Among other matches affected was that of Unguja who were pitted against Pemba. By the time the match was stopped, Unguja were ahead by almost 20 points.
“ The rains disrupted our fixtures, this results to other teams losing their matches because the players may lose focus while returning to the court”, said Mtwara’s head coach, Ibrahim Msami. His boys were expecting to play CRDB but had to wait till the rains went off.
There are a total of 24 men teams in the event as 12 women sides are battling it out for their side. CRDB bank are the main sponsors while other co-sponsors include Sanlam and Mayfair Insurance. T
