12 December 2024 | More Sports

Uganda's she Cranes have bounced back from the Africa Netball Cup opening-day defeat to Zimbabwe by beating Namibia, 55-43, at MTC Dome in the coastal city of Swakopmund.

Unlike the opener, the She Cranes played with a lot of urgency, moving the ball faster into the circle.

Changes were made to the team set-up with Hanisha Muhammeed starting at GoalKeeper and Faridah Kadondi moving to Goal Defense and the pair was formidable in and around the defensive circle.

In the attacking third, skipper Irene Eyaru started at GoalAttack to join Mary Nuba Cholhok and there was a lot of telepathy in the attacking circle.

The team turned a four-goal (15-11) lead at the end of the opening quarter to a nine-goal (23-32) lead at halftime a lead that was maintained through the second half despite Muhameed's two-minute suspension.

“We were reckless in our last game but we came into the Namibia match with a winning mentality. We lost the last game due to poor game management, and we couldn’t afford to repeat that mistake against Namibia,” Muhameed said of the game.

Eyaru had a perfect shooting evening making 22 attempts while Cholhok had a shooting accuracy of 84% (33/39). Midcour star Margaret Bagala was named player of the match.

Head coach Nelson Bogere praised his team’s performance.

“The girls executed everything as planned. The home team had the support but the team stayed focused and managed to win,” he said in the aftermath.

Uganda will next play Eswatini on Thursday afternoon in their third group game and a win will send Uganda to the semifinals.

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