Basketball in Africa

There are so many storylines from the opening day of the Airtel-Fuba National Basketball League and newcomers City Oilers came within a whisker of stealing the headlines. Their 68-65 loss to five-time champions DMark Power at the Lugogo on Friday was expected.

But the manner in which the loss came was a bit of a surprise as they lost within the last six seconds. The Oliers stood toe-to-toe with Power and know they could have done a better job. “We played an inside game. A game of guards,” Jimmy Enabu, who moved from Power in the off-season, said.
Oilers couldn’t get Kami Kabange (Espoir, Rwanda) and Ramadhan Arou (ISIU, Kenya) cleared in time whereas Norman Blick’s transfer from Warriors to Power has hit a snag.

Power are yet to meet his Shs2m buy-out clause though Bilck sat in the dug-out of the team he left two years and cheered like this was a Game Seven of the finals. Enabu scored 14 points, Andrew Opio added an impressive 18 and Mohammed Yusuf 11.