Our Mkoani basketball team remains undefeated in the Pemba-wide basketball tournament. The tournament consisted of 7 teams at the start. Each team played three matches, and the top four teams made it to the semi-final round.

We won each of our three games, with two of them coming down to the final minutes of the fourth quarter. Those three wins gave us home court advantage for the semi-final match against a team from our rival town, Chake Chake.

The semi-final match was played in terrible conditions. It had been raining all day (although it did stop for the match) and so we had a water-logged court and a slippery ball. Players were falling left and right, including myself, and numerous people lost control of the ball. Needless to say, the score was extremely low.

In the end, it came down to the fourth quarter. At the start we were trailing by 5 points. We rallied and managed to come up 21-20. Then we were charged with a technical foul from our bench. The other team made only one of the free throws, which put us even at 21-21.

Then their team was called with a technical foul, and I went to the free throw line for our team. I sunk both baskets, and again we were up 23-21. I had been playing guard, but we switched out one of our tall players, so I moved to forward.

At this point the Chake was feeling the heat, and they knew that a basket was needed. However, I was covering the center of our zone defense, and they tried forcing a drive to the inside. I just stood there and took the charge.

We took our time with the ball and missed an easy inside shot, but we grabbed the offensive board and put it in with an easy layup. 25-21.

Chake really needed a basket, but instead of finding an open shot they continued to try to drive to the inside. It took two more charges before the end of the game was called.

The crowd went wild! Mkoani hasn't been in the final match since I've lived here. We've made it to the semi-finals, but never to the finals. We were able to restore a bit of our pride with this win. Especially because it was at home on our new court. Now we're preparing for our match against another team from Chake, Tornado, which will happen on June 2nd. I'll keep you posted.

-- Mike