07 May 2023 | Basketball

City Oilers head coach Mandy Juruni says it was a good experience playing at the Basketball Africa League that was held in Cairo, Egypt. Despite not making it to the playoff in Kigali, City Oilers picked several lessons going forward and for the tournaments to come. The Ugandan side’s journey came to an end after failing to go past South Africa’s Cape Town Tigers in an 80-70 loss. “It was a good experience,” Juruni said shortly after the end of the game before adding; “We had some good games, we had some great moments but had some bad moments as well.” “But competitions are like that. This is a high competition in terms of clubs' basketball in Africa, so for us to here and compete against the best on the continent is an honour,” he stressed. The Oilers needed a win to squeeze in the last four who will play the BAL playoffs later on but the dream was shunned. “We were a bit flat on defence. I do not think we did a good job of making consistent stops. They shot the ball, they drove the ball and we did not have the firepower in us.” “Our efficiency was not good as on Friday and I think the other team also did a good job trying to stop our two scorers. Maybe the other guys should have come in to give us the lift.” Germaine Roebuck Jr’s injury was a great blow to Juruni’s troops who greatly missed his drive. The burden was left to Falando Jones who managed to score 27 points while James Justice Jr had a bad day scoring only nine. The oilers finished the group with only one win from five games. Their only win came against CFV de Beira in the second-last game of the fixture. “We have learnt a lot and we are happy to be here to represent our club and country,” he concluded.

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