PRETORIA, South Africa, Mar 28 – Kenya’s Nairobi City Thunder narrowly lost 90-85 to Dar City at the Basketball Africa League (BAL) season six Kalahari Conference played at the sold-out SunBet Arena in Pretoria on Saturday.
Captain and small forward Tylor Ogwae was Thunder’s highest points scorer with 18 points and 5 rebounds, while point guard Eugene Adera had 16 points and 13 rebounds to see the Kenyan champions push Dar down to the wire as both sides were tied 85-85 with less than two minutes to play.
“We played well. We out-rebounded them, we had 22 assists, but the coach always says we need to have fewer than 10 turnovers, but today we had 16, and I think that is where we lost the game, but we will rectify and bounce back,” skipper Ogwae said after the game.
Thunder won the rebound battle 45-39.
Dar City’s Frenchman, David Benoit Michineau, was the hero of the game after grabbing two late quick points that sank Thunder.
Michineau ended the game with a high scoring points of 39 and 8 rebounds.
“I am happy with the points I scored. It was not about individual performance; it’s all about the team. We gave it our all, I am happy we got the win because we played against a tough team,” Michineau said.
Being an East Africa derby, it was tipped to be a tight game, and it lived up to its expectations, seeing both sides exchange leads and at one point tying.
After the win, Dar City are on the right trajectory on their path to qualify for the playoffs on their debut, but for Thunder, they have to beat the home team, Johannesburg Giants, who lost their opening game.
