Enabu inspires Power to game 3 win over Warriors

 

D'MARK Power’s 20 year old Emmanuel Enabu is the youngest player in this year’s basketball finals but the fact that he is putting up a brilliant show against senior players is nothing but astonishing.

 

Enabu aka Awel dropped his personal playoffs’ best with 14 points and six assists as his side dominated the Kyambogo Warriors cruising to an 85-55 victory in Game 3 of the men’s division one finals Wednesday night at YMCA, Wandegeya.

 

His brilliant spark with elder brother Jimmy Enabu on transitional plays cracked the Warriors defense to not only define and bring flair into the game but also revive Power’s fast break legacy, a fete they are known to own.

 

With two steals and three rebounds, Jimmy converted all his eight points off running down the court and sharing the ball with his younger brother-Emmanuel as long as Warriors did not convert on offense.

 

Rugby international featuring for Power as the starting small forward Allan Musoke dropped the first two points of the night to give his side a 2-0 lead in the first minute but inconsistency saw the reigning champions trailing 12-2 with five minutes played.

 

However, a Ben Komakech partnership with Michael Kojo and Joseph Ikong saw Power make a strong comeback to finish the first quarter with a 21-16 lead while the Warriors’ had lost Ivan Enabu earlier in the quarter as he registered three personal fouls.

 

“We have had terrible starts in these series but it is something we want to work on because it could hurt us in the future,” admitted Barnes Ankunda, Power’s head coach.

 

Warriors’ woes continued in the second quarter as the team failed to beat Power’s 1-2-2 half-court defense and worse still Ivan’s replacement in point guard Jude Ochieng also registered three fouls leaving his side with Pascal Alule to control the game. Power scored an incredible 19 points as they limited their opponents to just nine points in the second quarter to close the half with a 40-22.

 

Talking to New Vision online after the game, Warriors’ head coach Mandy Juruni admitted that, “We just had a terrible game and everything seemed not to work for us because our shots refused to drop which really affected us because Power ran down the court with the ball for fast breaks.”

 

Juruni opted to bring on 7”2 feet tall Sam Gombya and Michael Kariuki in the third quarter but frustration from great defense played by Power’s duo of Boniface Okello and Micheal Kojo saw them return to the bench after four minutes of played time.

 

That the reigning league MVP Komakech crossed Ivan over and shot a three point shot on the buzzer was nothing but a precursor of what the point guard is capable of doing after scoring a game high 19 points and six assists.

 

Teammate Joseph Ikong added 16 points, six rebounds and four assists as Power finished this one comfortably outclassing the Warriors for the first time this season.

 

Ivan Enabu was the only Warriors player in double digits with 13 points, four assists and one rebound in Game 3 as the Malinga brothers-Eric and Henry were limited to seven and nine points respectively.