Kampala — Kenya women’s basketball team turned the heat on hosts Uganda beating them 67-62 at the semi final stage of the Fiba Africa Zone five qualifiers match here at the Lugogo Indoor courts on Sunday.
Kenya now face Egypt in the finals on Monday in what will be a repeat of the games opener for the sole ticket to the African games to be staged in Morocco in August.
Egypt had earlier eliminated Rwanda in the semi finals after a 78-73 win. They beat Kenya 86-82 in the opening match and went ahead to win all the matches to finish on top of the log ahead of the playoffs.
Uganda had finished second, Kenya third and Rwanda fourth in these matches, which were played in round robin format, with the top four qualifying for the semis.
Uganda had beaten Kenya 66-46 in the last preliminary stage on Saturday and came into the match full of confidence of wining again.
The Felmas Koranga led Kenya took the first quarter 17-15 and continued pressing their hosts to lead by 10 points at the break with the scores at 35-25.
The third quarter was balanced with Uganda’s Jamila Zama coming to life, but her trade mark penetration shots and three point shots got instant replies from Hilda Indasi, who was also on fire for Kenya with the scores 55-45 in favour of the visitors.
The US based Koranga, who has been outstanding scored a game high 18 points to lead the scoring for Kenya, while Indasi has 12 points and Betty Kananu eight.
Finland based professional Clare Lamunu top the scores for Uganda with 21 points, while Martha Soigi and Zama contributed 10 points each.
Kenya now face Egypt in the finals at 5pm, while Egypt men playing their last match against Tanzania from 3pm, before Uganda men and Rwanda face off in the games’ last match at 7pm.
