Sprite, a leading beverage of The Coca-Cola Company, unveiled the third edition of Sprite Slam Basketball competition through a high energy contest between And 1 Live team from the US against Kenya All-Star at Nyayo National Stadium gymnasium in Nairobi on Saturday June 11, night.
The match ended 134-100 in favour of the visitors who dominated all quarters recording 38-26, 32-23, 32-27, and 32-24.
Evans Letting gave Kenya a game high of 29 points while outstanding on the visitors side were Marvin "High Rizer" Rogers and Hugh "Baby Shaq" Jones who sunk 20 and 17 points respectively.
While the free events outside left many wanting more, the actual game inside the Nyayo Gymnasium definitely lived up to expectations. The brand of high-flying, freewheeling action you've seen on the Mix Tapes and on ESPN was definitely in effect throughout the game at the arena. Security was tight at the venue.
As expected, the visitors controlled the boards from the first whistle. They were strong through High Rizer, but not only Letting had 10 pts already in the first quarter, the Kenyan guards were strong in the game. Three pointers, a great full court press defense that produced a lot of steals and easy points and great fight in the rebound erased ensured the hosts matched And 1 team in every department.
At times, the And 1 team seemed rusty and listless, getting beaten to loose balls and misfiring on several alley-hoop attempts. As the first half continued, however, the rust started shaking off the visitors, and they began to electrify the crowd with rim-rattling dunks and alley-hoops from Dennis “Spyda” Chism and the towering Paul Otim aka “Polo”.
On the other end, USIU’s Philip Moturi took the game on his shoulders and tried to bring the Kenya select team back to the game, but the AND1 guards, especially Baby Shaq, and “Spyda” himself, were unstoppable. One of those great moments was when he took on “Spyda”, making him look modest with astute ball artistry to the jubilation on the fans. After 15 minutes though, And 1 had already scored 59 points. Amazing pace. The Kenyans scored 20 pts less than that, and no time out by their coach helped. The US stars continued to run, steal, jump, fight and score.
At the beginning of the second half, And 1 continued to feed off the momentum they built from the first half, racing out to their own 21-point lead. Included in the run was an amazing play by “Spyda”, who shook off his defender with an amazing, ankle-breaking move.
The overall vibe inside the arena was great, with hip-hop music blasting during the action and the on-court announcer getting the crowd hyped up and excited. During intermissions, much of the crowd would actually stand up and dance in place to the music-a fun scene you pretty much never see at an NBA or college game.
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