Last Year’s national finalists, Miruriri boys basketball team reasserted their mastery of the game after dominating the highly competitive Embu Open which went down last weekend. With a tough rivalry clouding the tournament, the ballers had to tread a careful path to ensure they walk away with the much desired win. Also considering the fact that Kangaru had a home advantage with a massive fan base by the court side, Miruriri had to have a very strong mentality in order to thrash their rivals in front of their fans.
Miruriri kicked off the tournament at a very high note, sending alarming signs to their rivals by recording convincing wins against Kajiunduthi and Ikawa. It might have well been considered a walk over. As if all that were a mere warm up, they thrashed the former Central region champions, Nyeri Baptist 27-9 in a thrilling match with a couple of dunks to reach the finals. It was a show off semi finals that left the crowds cheering out loud some of the star performances from the likes of Yaak Dau.
Point Guard Abel Kamaru was at the epicenter of the action, often controlling the pace of the game and demonstrating his prowess with a couple of crossovers here and there. The finals as usual ended up being the long-time rivals, Kangaru and Miruriri who weren’t new to each other. The Eastern region champions were looking at having a bite at the former champs in a match that was viewed as a clear indication of who will carry the regions lantern into the Nationals this year.
The match began at a rather slow pace with a low rate of conversion and a lot of misfiring which saw Miruriri trail by 3 points heading into the end of the first quarter. The scores stood at 8-5 and their shooting guard had already been booked twice. However, the narrative changed as coach Fredrick Mutugi sent a stern warning to his side who had failed to impress in the first quarter.
The remainder of the game became an all Miruriri show as they thumped Kangaru ruthlessly without any significant response from the opponents. They won the game with a 12 point advantage even though it was still a low scoring game. The final result was 24-12. Point Guard Abel Komora was voted the Most Valuable Player after his key role and star performance in the game.
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Fredrick Mutugi, the Miruriri coach says that his eyes are set on qualifying for the East African games this time round since he is confident that they will go through to the nationals. He laments their failure to have a strong bench as the reason why they failed to go through last year.
Ok, well. Let’s wait and see you at the nationals!
