Equity Hawks women's basketball team/ HANDOUTEquity Hawks coach Ben Oluoch is banking on defensive discipline and composure to carry his side into the National Women’s Basketball Premier League final.
The bankers face Stanbic Aces in Thursday’s winner-takes-all Game Five at Nyayo Gymnasium.
The Hawks revived their title hopes on Tuesday with a commanding 68-36 victory over Stanbic to level the best-of-five semi-final series at 2-2. This sets up a decisive showdown for a place against defending champions Kenya Ports Authority (KPA).
Oluoch wants his players to carry the same defensive intensity that helped them pull away from Stanbic in Game Four while improving their execution at both ends of the court.
“The difference was our defensive intensity. We wanted to make it difficult for Stanbic to get comfortable, and once we started defending well, our offence also began to flow,” said Oluoch.
Equity took control early, leading 14-8 after the opening quarter before extending their advantage to 31-24 at halftime. They then broke the game open in the third quarter, restricting Stanbic to just four points while scoring 17 to move (48-28) ahead before closing out the contest 20-8 in the final period. The emphatic response came after Stanbic moved within one win of the final with a 56-53 victory in Game Three. Equity had earlier won Game Two 70-37 after losing the opener 66-60.
Oluoch said the 32-point victory will count for little unless the Hawks reproduce their discipline in the decider. "We are happy to level the series, but nothing has been achieved yet. Game Five is a completely different game. It will come down to who executes better and stays composed when the pressure comes,” he said.
The winner will meet KPA, who completed a 3-0 semi-final sweep of TH3 Swish after victories of 80-42, 62-49 and 83-42. Thursday’s decider will therefore determine KPA's opponents in the final play-offs.
Equity Hawks are chasing a return to the podium after finishing among the top three in last season’s league campaign. The Hawks have also established themselves as one of the country’s leading women’s basketball sides in recent years, with their best-ever finish coming in 2024.
Equity Hawks won their fourth Kenya Basketball Federation Women’s Premier League title in 2024 after edging the Dockers 76-74 in overtime in a dramatic Game Five. Their title defence ended in the 2025 semi-finals when KPA won the series 3-1, but the Hawks are back in the championship hunt this season and need a win against Stanbic Aces to reach the final.
