Defending NBL champions Lerotholi Polytechnic off to bright start

The 2018/19 National Basketball League season got underway this past weekend
and the opening round of action did not disappoint...

Defending National Basketball League (NBL) champions Lerotholi Polytechnic got their title defence off to a bright start with a double dose of wins on the opening weekend of the 2018/19 NBL season.

Fokothi started things off with a nail-baiting 40-39 win over NUL Rovers in the season opening game on Friday night at Lehakoe, a game which was closer than expected.

Lerotholi then faced league new boys Tigers on Saturday but this time things were not as tight as the champions demolished their opponents 83-43.

The wins put Lerotholi on top of the A-Division’s Southern Conference after the first weekend of action as the only team to play twice and win twice.

NUL Rovers also played twice and they recovered from their Friday night disappointment against Lerotholi to wallop Roma 52-30 on Saturday at NUL.

The most high-profile fixture of the weekend was a Northern Conference clash on Sunday between Lichocha Shooting Rifles – runners up in the last two NBL Finals – and 2016 champions KTA All-Stars.

The game wasn’t close, however, as Lichocha outclassed KTA 54-35, the first major result in a season promises to be a fascinating one.

This year the fast-growing NBL has its most-ever registered teams in the league – 14.

The consequence is that the NBL’s top-flight A-Division has been divided into two streams, the North and South conferences.

Each conference has seven teams and at the end of the season the top two sides from each stream will advance to the four-team championship playoffs to determine the 2018/19 NBL champion.

NBL A-Division
Southern Conference	Northern Conference
Lerotholi Polytechnic NUL Rovers Tigers Bokamoso South Mafeteng Roma BBH	Lichocha Shooting Rifles KTA All-Stars Botho University Limkokwing Bokamoso North T98 Khubestate

Meanwhile, in the Ladies League there were weekend wins for Bokamoso North and Lerotholi while NUL Rovers and Lichocha claimed wins by forfeit after their opponents (Roma and KTA respectively) failed to show up for their games.

National Basketball League Weekend Results:

Friday at Lehakoe:

Lerotholi Polytechnic 40-39 NUL Rovers

Saturday at NUL:

A-Division:

Khubestate 40-63 T98

Limkokwing University 27-52 Bokamoso North

NUL Rovers 52-30 Roma

BBH 0-20 Bokamoso South (BBH lost by forfeit)

Ladies Division:

Limkokwing 11-42 Bokamoso North

NUL Rovers 20-0 Roma (Roma lost by forfeit)

Sunday at Lehakoe:

A-Division:

Lichocha Shooting Rifles 54-35 KTA All-Stars

Tigers 43-83 Lerotholi Polytechnic

Ladies Division:

Lichocha Shooting Rifles 20-0 KTA All-Stars (KTA lost by forfeit)

Tigers 37-38 Lerotholi Polytechnic

2018 High School Basketball League season gets underway

The 2018 High School Basketball League is underway...

The start of the 2018 High School Basketball League (HSBL) took centre stage this weekend.

The league is contested by the country’s top basketball schools and is divided into eight regions – Maseru 1, Maseru 2, Maseru Central, South 1, South 2, Thaba-Tseka, North 1 and North 2 with each region ranging between four and five teams.

The start of the HSBL season was afforded top billing by the Lesotho Basketball Association (LBA) with the National Basketball League (NBL) given a break this weekend.

The action didn’t disappoint.

In the Maseru 1 section, favourites and 2016 HSBL boys champions Christ the King High School (CK) completed an unbeaten opening weekend after wins over Matikoe High School (33-11), Machabeng College (14-9) and NULIS (23-17).

However, there was a hiccup for defending boys champions Johnson Baker as they were beaten 47-21 by Bereng after an earlier 25-14 win over St John’s.

In the girls’ section, reigning champions Mabathoana started their title defence with a 13-5 win over Sefika.

2015 girls and boys champions Methodist High School, meanwhile, started with a clean sweep in both sections. Methodist’s girls’ team beat Life (34-5) and Phomolong (20-16) while the boys beat Life (10-6) in Maseru 2 action.

The HSBL is the country’s premier basketball competition for high schools and will run until August when the Top 4 Finals are held to decide the national girls and boys champions.

HSBL Results:

Saturday, March 10

Maseru 1

Girls

St Mary’s 39-0 Matikoe

Machabeng 5-6 St Mary’s

Machabeng 37-1 Matikoe

Boys

NULIS 20-17 Machabeng

CK 33-11 Matikoe

Matikoe 8-54 NULIS

Machabeng 9-14 CK

Machabeng 15-16 Matikoe

CK 23-17 NULIS

Maseru 2

Girls

Methodist 34-5 Life

Methodist 20-16 Phomolong

Khubetsoana 5-7 Phomolong

Boys

Khubetsoana 14-17 Phomolong

Methodist 10-6 Life

Maseru Central

Girls

Sefika 5-13 Mabathoana

Leqele 20-5 Sefika

Boys
Lesotho High School 9-20 Sefika

Mabathoana 2-20 St James

Leqele 34-25 Lesotho High School

Sefika 31-32 Mabathoana

St James 12-29 Leqele

South 1

Girls
St Stephen’s 33-21 St Patrick’s

Holy Trinity 8-12 Masitise

St Patrick's 19-11 Holy Trinity

Boys
Masitise 16-18 St Stephen’s

Masitise 17-12 St Stephen’s

St Stephen’s 16-22 St Patrick’s

Holy Trinity 12-26 Masitise

St Patrick’s 59-17 Holy Trinity

South 2

Girls
Bereng 10-22 St John’s

Baker 16-12 St John’s

Baker 22-14 Bereng

Boys

Baker 25-14 St John’s

Baker 21-47 Bereng

Bereng 38-20 St John’s

LBA to re-introduce developmental league for under-21 players

An under-21 national league is in the pipeline...

Newly-elected Lesotho Basketball Association (LBA) director of development Faku Masupha says the LBA will re-introduce a developmental league for under-21 players this year.

Although Masupha didn’t give an exact date, the changes will probably come into effect when the 2018/19 campaign starts in August because the current season is already well underway.

The development league has not been played since 2015.

Masupha, who founded the successful Bokamoso Basketball Development Program in 2012, said the competition’s absence has affected the standard of the LBA’s top league, the National Basketball League (NBL) A-League. He said discussions are underway to introduce rules that will require all NBL clubs to have development league teams.

The grand vision, he added, includes a national league system beginning at primary schools.

“A developmental pipeline has different stages of which a player has to pass through before reaching the elite level,” Masupha explained.

“If things are go well we have to start from the cadet league targeting primary schools pupils and children at the community level, followed by a (high) school league, developmental league, promotional league and then the elite league.”

He continued: “At the moment we only have the high school league and the elite national league. We need to improve our players’ transition from grassroots level to professional level.”

Masupha said the developmental league will help to prepare young players for the pressures of the NBL A-League. 

“The absence of a developmental league kills a lot of local talent because some players jump straight to the senior league once they leave high school league, so what happens is they arrive in the league immature and are unable stand the pressure against old, experienced players. Because of that they end up losing interest in the sport,” he said.

Masupha said Lesotho needs to take youth development more seriously and that includes companies having a more impactful involvement in supporting development programmes.

“Development is the anchor position of the LBA, it is the anchor to any sporting code but requires proper planning that is properly monitored,” he said.

“For example, I planned to have Bokamoso Basketball Development programme back in 2011, I groomed most of the kids from the ages of 13 and 14 but we are only seeing results now,” Masupha added.

Lichocha women not resting after NBL championship win

Lichocha women are Lesotho's basketball queens again...

There is no rest for the wicked, as they say, and that is the case for the Lichocha Shooting Rifles ladies basketball team. Just three weeks ago Lichocha won a third successive National Basketball League (NBL) women’s title but already they are looking at ways to improve their squad.

Lichocha were crowned 2016/17 champions after beating Bokamoso North 49-45 in Game 5 of a thrilling women’s NBL finals to win the series 3-2.

It was a tightly-contested series pitting the experience of Lichocha against the youth of Bokamoso. But, in the end, Lichocha prevailed to add to titles they won in 2015 and 2016.

However, instead of celebrating, Lichocha say they are already head-hunting players to reinforce their squad. It is this attitude that can help explain why the team has won seven major trophies since 2014.

Lichocha captain Khothalo Mpeta said the team is on a scouting mission to find two players that will fill their roster. Lichocha currently have 10 players and teams are allowed to have 12. Mpeta also praised the team’s closeness as being the key to their continuing success.

“We need to recruit a few more players to make it a full team of 12 players; at the moment the team has only 10 players,” she said.

“We are successful because of the love we have between us as players,” Mpeta added. “We trust each other and everyone knows what to do on the court. The love that we all have for each other keeps the squad in high spirits.”

Champions KTA take big step towards playoffs as Rovers slip

KTA Pressure...
Champions KTA All-Stars had a good weekend...

There is only one week left in the National Basketball League (NBL) regular season and reigning champions KTA All-Stars will be smiling after a weekend in which they took a big step towards reaching the playoffs.

KTA came into this weekend’s action in sixth place and nervously looking into the top four playoff spots.

The champions faced real danger of missing the playoffs but thanks to a 67-24 win over LCE this afternoon and a costly slip by NUL Rovers, KTA have their playoff destiny – and title defence – in their own hands.

Rovers, meanwhile, will be kicking themselves because they were in control of fourth place, but two sloppy days have cost them dearly.

The weekend immediately got off to a bad start for Rovers as they lost 65-49 to Leseli Tigers on Friday night at Lehakoe Club. Rovers then suffered a crushing 45-41 loss at home to lowly Limkokwing University on Saturday which gave KTA the opening to steal fourth place.

KTA didn’t have things all their own way in that quest.

They were beaten 63-55 by second-placed Lichocha Shooting Rifles on Saturday in Roma, a defeat that will again raise questions over KTA’s credentials when the top four title playoffs begin.

However, KTA, who have won three of the past four NBL titles, will think about that later. They beat 69-27 Bokamoso North in their other game on Saturday and climbed into fourth with this afternoon’s 67-24 thumping of LCE.

The rest of the top four appears settled.

KTA are fourth with one week to go...

Log leaders Bokamoso South, who were beaten in the NBL finals by KTA last season, and Lichocha will be there. Third-placed Bashana Baheso, winners of their last four games, and KTA will most likely be there as well when the NBL season begins its business end.

In the ladies league, reigning champions Lichocha Shooting Rifles emphatically returned to the top of the table with a 100-12 mauling of Limkokwing University this afternoon at Lehakoe. The win was a bounce-back after Lichocha lost 43-36 to KTA ladies on Saturday in Roma. The champions are one point ahead of Bokamoso North who demolished KTA 41-8 on Saturday to make it five wins in a row.

With just a week to play, the top four teams for the playoffs in the ladies league are all but decided. Lichocha, Bokamoso North, NUL Rovers and KTA All-Stars will contest the national title.

All that is left is to decide the seedings. The NBL league season is scheduled to end next Sunday before the playoffs start.

NBL Weekend Results:

Friday (Lehakoe):

A-League

Leseli Tigers 65-49 NUL Rovers

Saturday (NUL):

A-League

KTA All-Stars 69-27 Bokamoso North

NUL Rovers 41-45 Limkokwing University

Lichocha Shooting Rifles 63-55 KTA All-Stars

Bokamoso South 76-25 LCE

Ladies

KTA All-Stars 8-41 Bokamoso North

Lichocha Shooting Rifles 45-21 NUL Rovers

Lichocha Shooting Rifles 36-43 KTA All-Stars

NUL 62-8 Limkokwing University

B-League

Lichocha Shooting Rifles 20-0 Bashana Baheso

Lichocha Shooting Rifles 28-30 South Warriors

South Warriors 20-0 Leseli Tigers

Sunday (Lehakoe):

A-League

Bokamoso North 59-56 Khubestate

Lichocha Shooting Rifles 66-54 Limkokwing University

LCE 24-67 KTA All-Stars

Ladies

Bashana Baheso 44-75 Leseli Tigers

Lichocha Shooting Rifles 100-12 Limkokwing University

LCE 0-20 KTA All-Stars

B-League

Bashana Baheso 0-0 Leseli Tigers

NBL Standings:

A-League

		P	Points	W	L	PF	PA	Diff	Last 10	Streak
1	Bokamoso South	18	35	17	1	1143	703	9-1	440	W9
2	Lichocha	18	33	15	3	1321	758	8-2	563	W6
3	Bashana Baheso	16	29	13	3	923	584	8-2	339	W4
4	KTA All-Stars	17	29	12	5	951	770	8-2	181	W1
5	NUL Rovers	17	27	10	7	879	736	6-4	143	L2
6	Leseli Tigers	17	25	9	8	882	913	5-5	-31	W1
7	Bokamoso North	19	24	5	14	651	956	3-7	-305	W1
8	Lerotholi	20	24	5	15	754	1155	2-8	-401	L3
9	Limkokwing	19	23	4	15	658	958	4-6	-300	L1
10	Khubestate	18	22	6	12	639	837	3-7	-198	L2
11	LCE	18	20	2	16	588	1035	1-9	-447	L9

Ladies

		P	Points	W	L	PF	PA	Diff	Last 10	Streak
1	Lichocha	15	28	13	2	693	366	8-2	327	W1
2	Bokamoso North	15	27	13	2	494	177	9-1	317	W5
3	NUL Rovers	14	24	10	4	470	277	6-4	193	L1
4	KTA All-Stars	14	23	9	5	503	390	7-3	113	W2
5	Leseli Tigers	14	19	6	8	500	426	4-6	74	W1
6	Bashana Baheso	14	17	6	8	402	373	5-5	29	L2
7	Bokamoso South	13	14	3	9	229	456	3-7	-227	L1
8	Limkokwing	14	12	1	13	97	653	0-10	-556	L12
9	LCE	14	10	0	14	126	420	0-10	-294	L13