This archive report was first published on 4 November 2019.
On November 2, 2019, Ulinzi Warriors and Thunder qualified for the basketball Premier League play-offs semi-finals at Nyayo National Stadium gymnasium.
Ulinzi Warriors, who topped the 12-team table standings with 43 points, proved their strength by knocking out lowly rated Kisumu Lakeside 2-0 in the play-off quarter finals.
They defeated Lakeside 94-63 in Game Two of the best-of-three series to book a ticket to the semi-final, after earlier labouring to beat Lakeside 80-78 in Game One in Kisumu.
Second seeds Thunder, meanwhile, eliminated newcomers Eldonets 2-1 to qualify for their second semi-final in a row.
After going down 53-63 in the opening Game One in Eldoret, Thunder bounced back to win Game Two 82-50 on Saturday to lock the series 1-1.
Thunder then sealed Eldonets' fate by defeating their opponents 52-33 in the decisive Game Three on Sunday to qualify for the best-of-five series semi-finals.
Red-hot Kenya international shooting guard Griffin Ligare scored a game-high 28 points and forward Kevin Chogo added 20, leading Thunder's tremendous performance to reach the semi-finals.
Thunder's coach Sadat Gaya attributed their success to starting to work on scoring after losing Game One and tightening their defence, which paid dividends as they won two consecutive matches to qualify for the semi-finals.
Eldonets head coach Maurice Ouma, on the other hand, attributed their loss to inexperience, with his players making unnecessary mistakes.
