Wilhelmina Iimene
The Khomas Basketball Association (KBA), as per its yearly tradition, hosted a successful Independence Cup in the capital, which saw local sides sweating it out for supremacy and honour.
The KBA Independence Cup, which started last Thursday and concluded on Monday, coincided with Namibia’s independence celebrations, which were held over the past long weekend. The games were played at the Unam Gym Hall in Windhoek.
The tourney attracted eight male teams, being Titans, Plaza Warriors, Afro Stars, Quality Basketball Club, NUST Blues, NUST Gladiators, Unam Wolves and Unam Rebels. It also saw four female teams in NUST Dodgers, Unam Cats, Unam Sparks and Legends all partaking.
Unam Wolves were crowned the men’s champions after they overpowered Rebels in a thrilling final, while Unam Sparks were in superb form as they trounced Legends to clinch the women’s category.
The competition provided players with a much-needed opportunity to break some sweat, while also testing themselves against each other ahead of major championships slated for this year.
Allan Nghixulifwa, one of the star players for Unam Wolves, touched on the importance of the tournament, and how they prepared hard to win the cup.
“Anything apart from coming first would have been a great disappointment. We, the Unam teams, have been practising together for at least a week before this tournament, and that gave us a high chance and better advantage of making it to the finals. Practice makes perfect. So, as much as a team has good players, it needs to build a team bond and know each other well before playing in major tournaments,” Nghixulifwa said.
Newly-elected KBA president Helena Uugwanga expressed satisfaction with how the Independence Cup went, saying one could see from the performance that all teams came with a mission and a plan.
She also shared that the KBA league will kick off early next month.
“We are, however, in talks with Vivo Shell Namibia and the Unam Basketball Community (UBC) to see if we can host a pre-season tournament that will help us gauge the readiness of the teams, and to also see how many teams will be partaking in the league this year.”
Uugwanga further revealed that plans are afloat to strengthen basketball at grassroots level, especially the youth leagues and teams.
“We intend to introduce a requirement for all teams to have a development team as part of their set-up, because this way we will at all times be able to feed the senior league. The youth is the future, so we intend to spend resources on them.”
The official handover of medals and trophies will be done at the opening of the KBA league.
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