Kenya’s chance of playing for a place in the 2021 AfroBasket quarterfinals remains in their own hands despite the 71-55 defeat to Nigeria on Friday.
With only group toppers directly qualifying for the quarters, Kenya still has a chance to finish third in the group but to do so, they have to beat Mali on Sunday.
The Morans had a poor start to the game scoring just a single free throw in over six minutes and D’Tigers took control of the game.
Morans rallied back in the second period to cut the deficit to single-digit but couldn’t keep up the second quarter production on both ends of the court after the long break.
As the case was in their opener when Taylor Ongwae delivered offensively, only one player showed out offensively for the Morans.
Albert Odero scored game-high 23 points and picked 8 rebounds to lead Kenya. No other Moran scored in double digits with Valentine Nyakinda and Fidel Okoth contributing 7 points apiece.
Uzodinma Utomi netted 17 points to pace Nigeria, Jeremiah Mordi added 10 off the bench while Jordan Omotayo and Andrew Edogi chipped in with 9 points apiece.