27 November 2022 | Basketball

City Oilers have qualified for the Basketball Africa League after beating Urunani to book the last ticket to the 2023 season. The Oilers won the third-place match 71-62 at the Ellis Park Arena in Johannesburg, South Africa. The Ugandan champions led 17-12 after the first quarter but their lead was cut to just a point at halftime. After the long break, Mandy Juruni's charges remained in character and held on to win by 9 points. Germaine Roebuck Jr put his struggles in the semifinals behind him and led the way with a double-double of 20 points and 11 rebounds. "It's emotional right now because we worked so hard to get here. Now we have finally done it. Today I started a little slow, but I knew could not let my team down. So when the second half came, I knew I had to come out aggressively in the game," Roebuck said in the aftermath. Fayed Baale rose to the occasion off the bench to contribute 12 points to go with 5 rebounds and 5 assists. Big man Ngor Banarba also contributed 12 points. "I am happy and proud of my players. The work that we have put in over the last three years has finally paid off," Mandy Juruni told FIBA. "In-game, I looked at my bench a bit more. In the Semifinal against the Tigers, our top guys played heavy minutes, and you could see they were not at their best. So we needed guys to come off the bench, and they gave us good minutes. "The win means a lot for our country. Ugandan basketball has been on the rise at the national team level. Now we are going to play in a top league in Africa," Juruni added.

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