NAIROBI, Kenya, Oct 18 – Kenya National Basketball League champions Nairobi City Thunder are seeking a second successive win in their hunt for qualification to the final tournament of the Basketball Africa League (BAL) when they take on Burundi’s Urunani in Tanzania on Friday night.
The flamboyant Thunder tipped off their campaign with a comfortable 89-53 victory over Seychellois side Beau Vallon and a second victory against the highly fancied Burundians will give them a much needed boost in their top two ambitions.
Urunani have picked back to back wins so far, after thrashing Vallon 112-43 to go 2-0 up after earlier on outwitting hosts JKT 83-60.
Thunder know their work is well cut out against the Burundians, who have heavily recruited for the Road to BAL 2025, and an eye on the next round, the Elite 16.
Captain Tyler Ongwae believes the team has picked up well after the jitters of the first game, where despite winning, they felt they didn’t do as much as they would have wanted.
“We started slow. However, that’s understandable as we had not played in about a week. Overall, we played hard and stuck together for this win. I know we can get better. With more than a week having not played, we were bound to be rusty and I believe we will be at the top of our game against Urunani,” the Kenyan international said.
Thunder will once again be looking upon their new recruits led by Ongwae, as well as the American duo of Will Sydney Davis and point guard Uchenna ‘UC’ Iroegbu, who both posted double-double scores in the first game.
