adminEllina Mhlanga Sports Reporter
THE Harare Basketball league got off on a positive note with most of the teams fulfilling their fixtures at Richwood Park over the weekend.
All matches were played at Richwood and newly promoted UZ Stars put up a good show to beat Cheetahs 40-32 on Saturday and their player Urich Kontcho was the second highest scorer of the weekend with 16 points.
The victory comes as a boost for the team as they were promoted into the A league during the play-offs held last month ahead of the season and they started their campaign on a good note winning their first match against Cheetahs.
In other matches played featuring top clubs, JBC thumped TrailBlazers 86-22 while Cameo dismissed Pistons 86-27 with Tawanda Chitsinde contributing 18 points for his side. The match between Raiderz and Hustlers was set to finish off late yesterday after they failed to conclude the match on Sunday due to bad lighting with six minutes remaining.
In the women’s league, Raiderz beat First Mutual Life 34-12 while Platinum Ballers defeated Ladies Association 34-33 in a tightly contested match that could have gone either way.
Raiderz coach, Martin Mukweva said he was satisfied with the team’’s performance and noted that they have roped in some juniors from their developmental programmes.
“They played really well, we had new signings from the developmental camp and most of them are juniors. We have Talent Chimusoro, Rumbi Ngava and Rumbidzai Zuze among others. These players are still in High School and we hope they will help us as they mature into the game,” said Mukweva.
Mukweva said they are hoping for the best for both their men and women’’s teams and are looking forward to an exciting season.
“We are expecting fireworks, we expect to compete and to perform to the best of our ability. We are also hoping to beef up the men’s team especially when it comes to size and we expect to play a quick game since we do not have the size to match the bigger guys,” said Mukweva.
The match between Pistons and UZ Stars in the women’s league was postponed after the former failed to turn up while in the B League the clash between G.A and First Mutual Life was also postponed to a later date on the request of First Mutual Life.
Results
A League: Cheetahs 32, UZ Stars 40; JBC 86, Trail Blazers22; Cameo 86, Pistons 27.
B League: Platinum Ballers 65, Arcadia Bucs39; South Central 42, Hornets 34.
Women’s League: Ladies Association 33, Platinum Ballers 34; Real Returners 34, Arcadia 30; First Mutual Life 12, Raiderz 34.
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