Near-complete Power continue perfect start
Afidra shooting the ball in Power’s victory over City Oilers. He picked nine rebounds and contributed 13 points in his team’s win over Falcons on Friday. Photo by Ismail Kezaala
What you need to know:
Six-time champions Falcon remain far from the team that reached the finals last but it would be foolhardy to write them off.
Isaac Afidra believes that when DMark Power share the ball, many teams in the Airtel National Basketball League will find it hard to defend, let alone beat them.
Ball sharing is an age-old basketball basic. The former champions read from the same script, sharing the ball admirably to defeat Falcons 87-78 at a packed Lugogo MTN Arena.
“That is Power basketball,” Afidra, scorer of 13 points and nine rebounds despite converting only one of seven from downtown, said.
In all, six Power players chalked up double digits on a pleasing night that started rather slowly.
Norman Blick laboured to a team-high 17 points, Paul Odong scored 13 off the bench, Joseph Ikong contributed 12 and nine rebounds, Paul Mwaka had 11 and Michael Kojo added 10.
The latter two, like Odong, were reserves. Kojo, who also had five rebounds, only featured in the second half after the starting centre David Kiberu picked three quick fouls.
In bits, it was beautiful to watch as Power got their transition game going to condemn Falcons to second loss this season. However, it was far from a smooth ride for coach Bernice Ankunda’s side.
In a game between the two most successful sides here, Falcons were slightly quicker out of the blocks despite their guards Geoff Omondi and Abdulahi Ramadhan struggling to feed the rest of the team.
It was even worse for Blick, an off-season signing from Warriors and five-time league champion. The reigning Most Valuable Player (MVP) was spineless early.
No wonder Power didn’t need two-time MVP Ben Komakech on the floor down the stretch. Blick ran the show and got the ‘W’ to push the win-loss column to 7-0.
While the fortunes didn’t change much for Omondi, nine points, and Dulah, 13 points and five turnovers, Blick turned his game around, scoring 12 of his points in the second half.
Superb Omony
For most of the first half, Falcons didn’t feed Stephen Omony but when he got the ball, he finished with a game-high 28 points and 11 rebounds, going 11 for 13 from inside the arc, dominating the low-post.
They could only imagine what could have happened had they fed the veteran more on a night Falcons didn’t have centre Philip Ameny, their other consistent scorer, and Peter Elungat fouling out on 14 points.
New signing Serge Kabangu scored 10 points and 10 rebounds but there is still more to come from the big man who was really impressive in his first game.
Six-time champions Falcon remain far from the team that reached the finals last but it would be foolhardy to write them off.
There is still a lot of basketball to be played and regular season form has rarely had a bearing on the shape of teams going into the playoffs. It’s simply too early though another guard would raise their chances considerably.
