Nairobi City Thunder Strikes To Silence Joburg Giants At Home In BAL Kalahari Conference
PRETORIA, South Africa, Mar 29 – Kenyan champions Nairobi City Thunder bounced back in the Basketball Africa League (BAL) Kalahari Conference to silence home team Johannesburg Giants 71-65 in the presence of their fans at a packed SunBet Arena in Pretoria, South Africa on Sunday.
Thunder made amends after losing 85-90 to neighbours Dar City in their opening game on Saturday.
Youngster Garang Diing stole the show, displaying an MVP performance by scoring 24 points that ensured the Thunder picked up their first win and stayed on track for the playoffs qualification.
Skipper Tylor Ogwae’s 12 points and American Lance Thomas’ 10 contributed to the team’s victory after outclasing Joburg in the rebounds 44-42.
Speaking to Capital Sport after the game, Ogwae said today they brought in their A game after tightening their defence, which cost them in their opening encounter against Dar.
“Diing has grown as a player. We are happy to see him shine, and in the next game, he will be crucial for us. Basketball is a game of runs; we executed that very well. In the last quarter, we had to play defence to secure the win,” Ogwae, who contributed 7 assists, said.
On his part, Diing, who missed the BAL Elite 16 in Nairobi due to injury, said he was happy to help Thunder back on track for qualification.
“I thank God for the shots I was able to make that helped the team get out of the zone, and it’s important to us as we focus on the next game, just to try to build the momentum and get more wins,” the 19-year-old told Capital Sport.
For head coach Brad Ibs, he attributed the win to great defensive skills and is hoping to sharpen the offense ahead of Wednesday’s game against Petro de Luanda, who lost their first game to Rwanda’s RSSB Tigers.
“Today, we relied on great defensive efforts; it wasn’t a great shooting day for us. Garang obviously performed well, and he will build on that in our next game. Lance was big just protecting the rim, but it was all about team effort and contributions throughout the game,” Ibs stated.
-Diing Shine-
In the first half, despite not starting, Diing came on to record a massive 12 points that inspired Thunder to take the opening half 43-31.
Even though he did not score any points in the first half, Eugene Adero contributed to Thunder’s success with 5 rebounds, combined with Jawachi Joseph Nzeakor, who also had 5.
The Giants got the game underway with the first basket, taking Thunder almost four minutes to pull back courtesy of Ariel Okall, then point guard Derrrick Ogechi added two more points before American Lance Thomas scored a beauty dunk to see the Kenyan charges lead 7-5.
The game proceeded to an end-to-end action with the introduction of South Sudanese Diing, who wasted no time, making an impact with two quick three-pointers to ensure the Ibs coached side took a comfortable 18-13 win in the first quarter, before going on to take the second quarter as well, 25-18.
The Giants rallied by their fans, resumed the last half inspired, scoring 21 points against the Thunder’s 9 to catch up for a 52-52 scoreline.
However, pressure from the home fans seemed to soak into the Giants’ minds, enabling the Thunder to record 19 more points against 13 to seal the win.
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