The 2022-23 ACAC men’s basketball season was an excellent one for the NAIT Ooks, and especially so for Benjamin Kamba, whose ability to contribute at both ends of the court earned him a spot on the ACAC North Division’s All-Conference First Team.
Most All-Conference picks have the ability to score in bunches, and Kamba, the second-year guard from Calgary, definitely did just that. Offensively, he averaged 13.3 points per game, placing him in the top 30 in the entire ACAC. He also placed 15th overall in field goal percentage at 50.5 per cent, including an eye-popping 42.9 percent from three-point land. Kamba’s assist game was also elite, as he tallied 57 over the course of the regular season, good for 16th overall.
Putting up these sort of numbers, it was no doubt that Kamba was counted on as a starter all season. He started 18 of 20 games and logged a total of 569 minutes, making him top 30 in minutes played this season.
Despite the significant workload, Kamba met the challenge head-on, and showed to be a very important player to the teams success.
One shining example of this was during the Nov. 18 game against the Medicine Hat Rattlers, where the Ooks trailed 80-73 late in the game. Kamba collected an offensive rebound that allowed him to drain a layup shot uncontested, and from there, Kamba became the driving force for the Ooks to take that game. Kamba draining a three-pointer brought the Ooks within two. After that the Ooks would go on to score six more unanswered points to win the game 84-80. All told, Kamba had six of the Ooks’ 11 straight points to close the game out victoriously.
Posting a 13-7 record in the regular season, NAIT would end up making it to the ACAC Champion Weekend to face the SAIT Trojans in their first game, forcing Kamba face his old team in the matchup at Ambrose University. Though the end result wasn’t what the Ooks wanted, and the Trojans went on to win the ACAC Championship for a sixth straight year, Kamba contributed 12 points and 5 assists against his former team, going 4-for-7 on field goals.
Kamba has shown to be an important piece in the Ooks roster and will be active next year. Look for Kamba to continue being a dominant presence on the court whenever the Ooks men’s basketball team is in action.
