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Innocent Kurira, Sports Reporter

BULAWAYO Basketball Association (BBA) secretary general, Francis Dube says it’s all systems go ahead of the start of the new season at Khanyisile Sports Centre tomorrow.

Southern Mavericks won the women’s championship last season while Giants were crowned champions in the men’s division.

“We are very excited ahead of the start of the new season. We had a successful pre-season tournament last weekend which l believe set the right tone to the start of the new campaign. The most important thing for us is to work hand-in-glove with the National Association of Primary Heads (Naph) and National Association of Secondary Heads (Nash) so that we create a very vibrant junior policy in Bulawayo,” said Dube.

He also appealed to the corporate world to assist them grow the game in the city.

Southern Mavericks men and Lakers women basketball teams were crowned champions of the BBA pre-season tournament held last weekend. The tournament was a prelude to the league start tomorrow.

In the men’s category Southern Mavericks beat seasoned Lakers 55-23 in the quarter-finals before they proceeded to beat Nust A 39-25 in the semi-finals. They went on to edge perennial rivals Oilers 34-33 in what was a tightly contested final. Oilers on the other hand had booked their place in the final with a 33-29 victory over Legends. 

In the women’s category Lakers played Nust in the semi-finals and were 33-19 victors. The other semi-final was between Mavericks women and Angels which was won by the former 33-29 to book a place in the final against seasoned campaigners Lakers. A dominant Lakers performance saw them beat Mavericks 47-24.

Fixtures

Tomorrow: Women; Lakers A v Lakers B, Bosso v Divas, Nust v Angels Men; Highlanders v Mavericks, Oilers v Legends

Sunday: Women; LSU v Angels, Men; LSU V Lakers, Nust B v City Knights, Nust A v Clippers – @innocentskizoe