UCU Lady Canons 70-61 KCCA Leopards
UCU Lady Canons will play for a fourth straight National Basketball League title after sweeping rivals KCCA Leopards 3-0.
After easing through the first two games, Lady Canons had to fight hard on Tuesday night not not to prolong the best-of-five series.
And it was shooting guard Rhoda Nagitta that came to life scoring game-high 18 points as UCU defeated KCCA 70-61 at Lugogo Indoor Stadium.
The consequences of defeat were clear to the Leopards, and they treated and played Game 3 as such.
Having been run out early in the first two games of the series, Ali Mavita’s charges never let that happen, playing better defense though they fell behind 14-12 after the opening ten minutes.
Led by point guard Cynthia Irakunda who scored 9 of the team’s 21 points in the second quarter, KCCA Leopards assumed a two-point (33-31) lead at the halftime break.
However, through a team effort that saw Nagitta, Vilma Achieng, Sarah Ageno and Zainah Lokwameri all contribute, Lady Canons assumed a 0ne-point lead (50-49) heading into the decisive fourth quarter.
The final quarter was close until the final three minutes of the game. Leopards were forced to cough up the ball with a shot-clock violation, and on the end Nagitta drew a foul for an and-one to put UCU up 62-57, 5:54 to play.
A couple of foul shots from Lokwameri followed by Nagitta’s lay-up took the game away from Leopards who wont be making the finals for the first time since 2010 when they were knocked out at the same level by A1 Challenge.
Nagitta (18 points), Achieng (16 points & 12 rebounds), Lowameri (12 points) and Rosine Micomyia (10 points) all score in double figures for the victors.
Meanwhile, Irakunda (17 points), Martha Soigi (16 points) and Joy Chemtai (11 points) were the KCCA players that reached double-figures in scoring.