Kenya Ports Authority bowed out of the Road to Basketball Africa League (BAL) after losing 69-67 to Tanzania’s Pazi in Dar-es-salaam, Tanzania.
The result means, the porters, who attended the previous two editions of Elite 16 events, will miss out for the first time in three outings.
KPA were buried, courtesy of a last-second effort in Group ‘C’ East Division, by guard Sadick Athumani, who scored the game clincher with 0:12 seconds left on the clock in a match played at a packed IST Gymnasium.
The hard-earned victory saw the Tanzania champions bag the zone’s sole ticket to the next phase of the event slated for Johannesburg, South Africa from November 14-19.
KPA had topped the group in two previous meetings in Antananarivo, Madagascar, joining the last 16 in Kigali, Rwanda, before being eliminated.
The porters, who fell 75-63 to Dynamo Burundi in the opener and thumped Elan Coton of Benin 68-48, led 18-17 in the first quarter and 33-32 at half-time despite Pazi’s efforts to change the tide.
The Tanzanians took over the proceedings; building a 10-point cushion at 61-51 but the never-say-die KPA charged to lock the duel 67-67 with under a minute to play. Athumani scored a game-high 24 points for Pazi, who qualified in only their first outing in the tournament.
Towering former NBA star, Thabeet Hasheem, scored 12 points, pulled down 15 rebounds, and had 7 blocks. Maliek Jordan led KPA tally with 21 points while Luqman Lundy and Eugene Adera added 17 and 11 respectively in the sad loss.
Group C final standing:
1. Pazi BBC (3-0)
2. Dynamo (2-1)
3. KPA (1-2)
4. Elan Coton (0-3)
