Former national women’s basketball team player and Kenya Ports Authority assistant head coach Brenda Angeshi believes inadequate training and preparations was the major factor for Lionesses’ failure to defend this year’s Zone Five Women’s championship title.

Kenya’s Lionesses bagged the bronze medal after finishing third at this year’s championships that was held at MTN Arena Lugogo in Kampala, Uganda, a championship won by Egypt after beating the hosts 74-65 in the final.

Kenya thrashed South Sudan 64-30 in their third-place playoff match played on Sunday.

“I think the Lionesses did a good job, considering the time they had to train together which made things tricky. Talent carried us throughout the tournament in the games we won but when it came to team work, we lagged behind because the way Egypt played they looked like a team which had trained together, therefore for us time really messed us up but despite that they did a good job,”Angeshi said.

Kenya, who went into the tourney as reigning champions got off to a flyer beating hosts Uganda 61-53 on Tuesday. They then hammered Rwanda 69-58 on Thursday before defeating South Sudan 80-51 on Friday but lost to eventual champions Egypt 57-82 on Saturday missing out on the opportunity to play in the final.

The Lionesses dominated all the quarters, winning the first quarter 12-11, as they added another win of 17-05 in the second quarter going to halftime with a commanding 29-16 lead.

After the break, the Sudanese could not match the experienced Lionesses as they lost 08-17 and 06-18 in the third and fourth quarters respectively to give the Kenyans the deserved victory.

The 18-year-old Madina Okot stepped up for Kenya with a game-high 18 points and claimed game high of 16 rebounds while Perina James Leime had a team-high of 10 points for the South Sudanese side.

Portugal-based Victoria Reynolds had ten points and six rebounds.

Team captain who trades with local side Equity Hawks, Mellisa Akinyi Otieno had a game high of seven assists.

 Egypt won the championship by defeating host Uganda 74-65 in the final and will represent the region in this year’s All Africa Games in August, in Accra and Afrobasket championship in December, in Kigali.