Nairobi City Thunder picked up their first win at the Basketball Africa League, beating Made By Ball (MBB), 85-76, at the BK Aena on Saturday.
The Thunder (1-3) started with a bit of energy thanks largely to the change in the starting lineup that saw Eugene Adera, Albert Odero, Tyler Ongwae, Garang Diing, and Ariel Okall start and have extended minutes in the first quarter, which they also played with active hands.
Made By Ball was slow out of the blocks but Taefale Lenard Jr took charge, scoring 14 of his game-high 39 points in the quarter, and the South African eventually caught up, took the lead with just under 1:30 to play and won the period 24-20.
As the Thunder struggled to convert bunnies early in the second quarter, MBB took the advantage to extend the lead to double digits, forcing Bradley Thomas to call for a timeout to arrest the slide. It was BAL Elevate graduate Yohane Kabongo who stepped off the bench and ran the floor well, getting rewarded with a couple of alley-oops to spark a 10-0 Thunder run to tie the game at 35. The Kenyan side went into the halftime break leading 41-39.
Okall committed a couple of costly turnovers early in the third quarter that gave MBB the push they needed to get a grip on the game again. They, however, were not in total control as the quarter was back-and-forth but Uchenna Iroegbu connected from 3-point land at the horn to give Thunder a one-point (55-54) lead.
Two early backets had MBB in the lead but Odero and Diing took charge for Thunder to open up a 10-point (68-58) lead with just under 7 minutes to play. MBB couldn’t recover despite cutting the lead to single digits as Odero, who later fouled out, continued to attack the basket and offensive glass. Ongwae’s corner 3 extended the lead to 15 (80-65) with just over two minutes, and the game was all but done.
Odero finished with 23 points and 9 rebounds, Uroegbu contributed 14 points off the bench, Diing had a double-double of 13 points and 10 rebounds, and Yohane Kabongo scored 11 points. Ongwae and Eugene Adera chipped in 10 points apiece.
Nathi Sibanyoni (10 points) was the only other MBB player who scored in double figures.
With defeat, MBB’s path to the playoffs is complicated. They have to win their last game of the conference on Sunday against already qualified and unbeaten AlAhli Tripoli.