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.

City Oilers will have to win the 3rd-place playoff game against Urunani on Sunday, 27th November to qualify for Basketball Africa League 2023.

East African sides lost their respective semifinal fixtures on Saturday, 26th November, and have now a chance to redeem themselves.

Oilers lost to hosts Cape Town Tigers 69-75 in a closely contested Elite 16 Division East semifinal as the Burundians fell to Ferroviario Beira.

The Ugandan champions will feel hard done by their free throw shooting where they were 3-for-11 and defensive execution down the stretch as they allowed back-to-back 3-pointers from Dhieu Deng.

Falando Jones was unstoppable, pouring in 40 points (more than half of the team’s total) but the rest of the players failed to show up on the offensive end.

Ngor Barnaba (10 points) was the other Oiler to score in double figures. Germaine Roebuck had 6, Uche Nnamdi and Titus Lual had 4 each while James Okello and Jimmy Enabu combined for just five points.

 

City Oilers are close to qualifying for the Basketball Africa League (BAL) 2023.

The National Basketball League champions have secured two wins in their group at the ongoing Division East qualifying tournament at Ellis Park Arena in Johannesburg, South Africa.

By winning the two games, the Oilers qualify for the semifinal of the tournament and now need to finish in the top 3 to qualify for BAL 2023.

On the tournament opening day (Tuesday), the Oilers beat COSPN of Madagascar 71-59 with Germaine Roebuck Jr netting a game-high 17 points. Falando Jones and Titus Odeke came in handy with 15 and 11 points respectively.

In their second game on Wednesday afternoon, City Oilers beat Matero Magic of Zambia 83-73 with Falando Jones and Germain Roebuck combining for 50 points. Jones scored 26 points while Roebuck added 24 points in the win that sealed a semifinal place for the team.

Titus Odeke, Uchechi Ogbonna, and Ngor Barnaba contributed 9 points each.

Next Up

City Oilers will face Ferroviario Beira in the last group game on Thursday at 5:30pm (EAT) in a match-up whose winner will top the pool. The Mozambique side has also won two games, against Matero Magic (63-57) and COSPN (84-53).

Uganda National Netball Team, She Cranes, has dropped in the latest official Netball World Rankings published by World Netball.

As per the rankings, Uganda drops to 7th from the 6th spot, which they had obtained towards the end of last year, earning them an automatic qualification to the World Cup 2023.

The She Cranes had an impressive performance in the Commonwealth games where they had their best finish ever when they finished fifth.

“Uganda’s and Jamaica’s rankings have been impacted by their failure to fulfill fixtures during August and September,” World Netball stated.

World Netball indicated that the She Cranes’ failure to honour some of its August and September fixtures which could have won them some ranking points saw them slip back to seventh, leapfrogged by Malawi who did honour theirs. She Cranes did not play in the Africa Netball Championship (World Cup Qualifiers) where Malawi finished second behind winners South Africa.

The top sixteen seeded countries are going to compete in World Cup.

The Top 16

1. Australia
2. New Zealand
3. England
4. Jamaica
5. South Africa
6. Malawi
7. Uganda
8. Tonga
9. Wales
10. Scotland
11. Trinidad & Tobago
12. Northern Ireland
13. Zimbabwe
14. Barbados
15. Fiji
16. Sri Lanka

KCCA Netball Club edged sister club Makindye Weyonje 41-37 in a closely contested affair in the Netball Super League at TLC Kamokya.

The first quarter ended 11 goals apiece and the teams who went into half-time break tied 22-22.

The third quarter started with turnovers at both ends but both sides struggled to convert until after almost three minutes when Weyonje opened the scoring.

KCCA had a two-goal lead at 25-23 which they managed to extend to four goals, thanks to Nambirige and Malisera Akello’s partnership which won balls for them to end the third quarter at 32-29.

Towards the middle of the third quarter, Weyonje’s sharpshooter Asinah Kabendela was substituted off injured which was a big blow ito Weyonje’s shooting, as Lilian Achola was moved from center position to goal attacker and this literally cost them a match.

In the last quarter, KCCA stood its ground and capitalized on Weyonje’s blunders committed in the final third to open a six-goal advantage at 36-30 which Weyonje managed to reduce by only two goals as the match ended 41-37 in favor of KCCA.

KCCA moves to second position with 10 points and a health goal advantage with three games in hand, while Weyonje slips to 4th with 10 points from eight games.

Uganda Netball She Cranes and Loughborough Lightning Goal Shooter Mary Nuba has been voted the Fans’ Player of Fast 5 Netball World Series 2022.

Congratulations to our own Nicholé Taljaard 🇿🇦 named as the 2022 FAST5⃣ Netball World Series' Player of the Series and to Uganda's Mary Cholhok 🇺🇬 voted as the Fan Choice Player of the Series 👏#SAFast5 | #Fast5NetballWorldSeries | #NetballFamily pic.twitter.com/qJ0w6ASlMl

— Netball South Africa (@Netball_SA) November 6, 2022

The Netball She Cranes finished fifth on the points table with four points out of the World’s top 6 ranked nations in Netball.

Coached by Fred Mugerwa, the team defeated Jamaica in the fifth place-playoff match 32-10. The team also defeated the World’s number 1 team – Australia 32-30 in one of the group games, lost to South Africa 22-27 among other results.

Uganda dominated in the tally of most gains, only Australia being better. Individually, Joan Nampungu amassed 17 to finish third in the whole tournament.

Margaret Baagala was also in her own league with the most feeds and most assists, a proper fulcrum in the She Cranes side.

Most Feeds
Margret Baagala (Uga) 98

Most Assists
Margret Baagala (Uga) 58

Most Gains (Individual)
Tara Hinchliffe (Aus) 20
Kim Jenner (Aus) 18
Joan Nampungu (Uga) 17
Elle Temu (NZ) 15
Matilda McDonell (Aus) 14
Romelda Aiken-George (Jam) 13

Most Gains (Team)
Australia 59
Uganda 47
New Zealand 45
England 40
Jamaica 38
South Africa 34

 

She Cranes is off to New Zealand ahead of the Fast Five World Series.

The team comprised of 12 players was flagged off on Monday ahead of the tournament at which they be competing for the first time from 5th-6th November 2022.

At the flag-off event, the State Minister for Sports Peter Ogwang revealed that the government will continue injecting money to support the She Cranes team.

“These girls were paid all their dues for Commonwealth Games, they don’t owe us anything. And we as government are meant to facilitate all their international engagements.

“The moment I came in, I brought a few strict measures on how finances of government must be utilized. The moment you are given any money, you must account for the previous one. And I want to assure you that the president of the Uganda netball federation has confirmed to me that she has accounted for all the money,” said Ogwang.

Last week, the team entered camp and has been training ahead of the tournament.

She Cranes Squad:

• Peace Proscovia (Storm Surrey UK)
• Mary Nuba Cholhok (Loughborough Lightning UK)
• Nassanga Shadia (KCCA)
• Baagala Margret (NIC)
• Norah Lunkuse (KCCA)
• Namuyomba Christine Kango (Prisons)
• Hanisha Muhammed (KCCA)
• Irene Eyaru (KCCA)
• Nampungu Joan (NIC)
• Nambirige Sandra Ruth (KCCA)
• Kadondi Faridah (Makindye Weyonje)

City Oilers will have another chance at playing for a place in the 2023 Basketball Africa League (BAL) having made the Elite 16.

The Ugandan champions defeated Tanzanian side Army Basketball Club (ABC), 71-63, on Sunday night in a Group C game played at Mkapa National Indoor Stadium in Dar es Salaam.

Germaine Roebuck (Oilers) and Baraka Athumani (ABC) poured in 31 points each. Roebuck, who was named the player of the game, pulled down six rebounds, three assists and swiped seven steals.

The first quarter was an offensive exhibition from the Ugandans who won 27-20 but ABC was better in the second quarter closing the gap to just 2 points despite falling back to 10 points as Oilers’ offense stalled.

Oilers had a slim 53-52 lead at the end of the third quarter but Athumani took the game to City Oilers scoring seven points the hosts took a 59-53 lead.

Three 3-pointers from City Oilers from Tony Drileba (2) and James Okello swang the game and after that, it was all about game control.

The win meant Oilers join Urunani who completed the group unbeaten at the Elite 16 (Group F) that will be played in November.

Elite 16

City Oilers’ Road to BAL 2023 leads them to Cape Town, South Africa next where they will compete for a slot in the lucrative stage of Africa’s premier club basketball competition.

In Group F, Oilers will take on Cape Town Tigers (hosts), Ferroviário da Beira (Mozambique), Cobra Sport (South Sudan), Urunani (Burundi), COSPN (Madagascar), KPA (Kenya), and NBA Academy Africa.

The top three teams in the group will play in the 2023 Basketball Africa League. The other group of the Elite 16 will be hosted in Abidjan, Ivory Coast.

Uganda’s continental representatives City Oilers beat Tanzanian side Army Basketball Club (ABC) to qualify for the Elite 16 of the Basketball Africa League.

Playing a do-or-die match, Oilers edged the hosts 71-63 in a closely contested game played on Sunday night at the Benjamin Mkapa Indoor Stadium in Dar es Salaam.

The result took Oilers to two wins in three games and finish second in the group to join Burundi’s Urunani in the next phase of qualifiers.

The Elite 16, which is the last round of qualifiers for next year’s Basketball Africa League, will be played in Cape Town, South Africa from 22nd-27th November.

Mande Juruni’s men looked to be cruising after taking the first quarter 27-20 but the hosts slowly came back into the contest and were down by just two points heading into the long break.

Oilers led by just a point after the third quarter and trailed by five points at one stage in the fourth but the eight-time national league winners showed grit. Tonny Drilleba knocked down a three to see his side regain their lead and the Oilers held on for a needed win.

Germaine Roebuck, one of City Oilers two new additions, led the way with a joint-game-high 31 points, adding six rebounds and seven steals.

Burundian side Urunani are all but through to the second round of the BAL Qualifiers (Elite 16) after beating City Oilers on Saturday.

Led by their backcourt of Michael Bwanga Kazunguzibwa (21 points) and Guibert Nijimbere (15 points) with help from skipper Landry Ndikumana, Urunani edged Oilers 64-58 at the Benjamin Mkapa Indoor Stadium.

The trio, two of whom are familiar with Ugandan basketball, combined for 50 points with the rest of the team scoring 14.