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Th3 Swish on Sunday booked their place in the semi-finals of the 2026 Kenya Basketball Federation (KBF) Women’s Premier League after defeating Strathmore University’s Swords 2-1 in the quarters.
They recovered from their narrow 78-80 Game One to level the series 1-1 after Swords forfeited Game Two. Swords will have themselves to blame for handing game two to Th3 Swish after they refused to play following interruptions to the game due to power outages. The Ariel Okal coached Swish was leading the students 49-27 at the time the game prematurely ended on Saturday.
They fought gallantly to win Game Three and secure their first semi-final play-offs slot since their Premier League promotion in what Okal termed as a battle for survival.
It was a game of two halves as Th3 Swish dominated the first half taking the quarter one 15-9 then stretching their lead to 32-20 at half-time after winning the second period 17-11. Swords recovered to score 26 points against 15 in the second half but were crushed out of the title race after losing by a single point.
Reigning champions Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) remained on course to defend their title after beating Safe Spaces 2-0 to advance to the semis. They dismissed Safe Spaces 76-35 in Game Two played at Makande Gymnasium to join rivals Equity Hawks who were the first to qualify after eliminating Zetech University Sparks.
In Game One of the Men’s Premier League final best-of-five series, defending champions Nairobi City Thunder laboured to a 78-67 victory over their hosts KPA. This was the first time that Thunder faced a real threat as the dockers forced them to work harder and secure victory in overtime.
KPA, who have not defeated Thunder since the 2024 season, fought tooth and nail and were almost snatching game one but poor judgement on the rim with six seconds to play proved costly.
The match was tightly contested but it was the Dockers who were leading 59-57 with just six seconds on the clock. However, Jshin Brownlee missed an open chance to give KPA victory when he missed a dunk when it seemed like it was over for Thunder.
Thunder capitalised on that blunder to punish their hosts by leveling the score 59-59 and forcing the duel to be decided in overtime. They made the best out of the second chance, totally outplaying KPA to score 19 points against eight to snatch the victory.
David Deng was the star of the game as he knocked down 21 points to anchor Thunder to a 1-0 lead. Derrick Ogechi and captain Tylor Ongwae also had a great evening scoring 15 and 14 points respectively. Jason Kesseng led KPA with 13 points while Brownlee added 11.