GREEN BUFFALOES ARE CHAMPS

MATHEWS NDANDULA writes@SunZambianGREEN Buffaloes Basketball team are the champions of the just ended Midlands Basketball Tournament held at Na-tional Sports Development Centre (NASDEC) in Lusaka after beating Munali Sun’s in the finals as Napsa Breeze wins the ladies category.The Tournament attracted scores of basketball lovers who trouped to the venue to give support to their teams.Among the prominent people that were in attedance was Lusaka Mayor Miles Sampa.And the end of the games coaches shared their thoughts on the tournament.“The league was tough. Munali Sun’s came to play. We had to come from behind, we lost concentration in the third quarter and that is how they came up, but the best thing is we did our homework.“Our game plan was simple we make sure that if they are to take a lead we have to reduce it to 10 points, we also knew that we were likely to play Munali Sun’s because we looked at which teams are doing well currently which us buffaloes and Munali sun’s, we knew it when we just started the tournament and that is how we planned for them,” said Green Buffa-loes coach Isaiah Kambindima.“It was a tough game, Buffaloes was physically fit yesterday but today we managed to adjust and we put them to the limit. We actually got closer to the scores they scored yesterday but now on the defensive end we failed to locate where the other guys were then they got those easy baskets towards the end and reduced it to 10 points.“Today we played well. Yesterday, we were a bit flat so today we enjoyed the game unlike yesterday it was too tense,” said coach Martin Muchena.Coach Muchena said he now has a better team with the new inclusion of fresh players that are fitting in the squad well.And in the Ladies category Napsa Breeze managed to hold on to the title as the National defending champions.Napsa Breeze captain Tendai Ziko said the tournament was competitive.“We came to play, we played as a team we wanted to defend our title and we did our best. Buffalo was our threat even dolphins yeah but buffaloes were the most competitive team in this tournament,” Ziko said.“We focused to win and yes we won and we will still do our best to defend the title in the upcoming tournaments.”The first position had a K5,000 prize, second position got K4,000 with the third position walking away with K1,000.