22 Nov 2018

Botswana Basketball Association (BBA) will close the 2018 season campaign  with a battle for top four play-off spots over the weekend .

From today, all roads lead to Baisago University courts for the play-off battle of titans as Troopers, BDF V, Dolphins and Police will all sweat it out for the BBL national championship best of three series.

Game one of the play-offs has seeded third placed Dolphins against second placed BDF at 8 pm in a game that many bookmakers see as too tight to call.

Following the dismantling of Falcons, another army team based in Selibe-Phikwe to form one formidable BDF V side, the army team has had an impressive league campaign characterised by a solid defence.

The experience of national team veteran, Israel Mphoto might be the deciding factor towards BDF triumph in the play-offs.  With 14 years of experience under his belt, Mphoto  has impressive figures in his resume as he averages 15 points and six rebounds  per game.

Despite being second on the league, the army boys are at par on points with league leaders Troopers, but only seeded second as they lost to Troopers who have a better basket average ratio per game.

The youthful Dolphins on the hand are prepared to give out a brave fight.  Lead by Kesaobaka Ndawanya, Dolphins are a force to reckon with as they are the second highest scoring team in the league, but the departure of point guard Bathusi ‘Docs’ Tirelo on a basketball scholarship to the United States of America has crippled the teams winning probabilities.

The team will, however, be counting on their new Zimbabwean import, Gannoa Guadan who joined Dolphins at the beginning of the season from Harare Hustlers.

League leaders, Troopers will on Saturday square off against fourth placed Police V at 8pm.   Troopers will enter the court as favourites, but Police’s mean defence on the other hand might spell trouble for Troopers who have in the past games had problems dealing with rebounds around the rim due to their lack of height in their squad.

Instead, Troopers might have to do it from behind the arc where they have the highest percentage of open jump shots per game.

The youthful Police will be pinning their victory hopes on point guard, Warinkadwa Naritha  and Churchhill Barrows who have in the past orchestrated most of Police V victories.  Barrows brings a lot of stability and experience to the team as he has played the game in the highest levels around the world including with South African based North West Eagles.

The winner and the runner-up of the play-off games will represent Botswana at the Zone VI preliminary club basketball championships to be played next year at a venue yet to be announced. ENDS