FIBA Afrobasket Qualifiers

Cape Verde 78 Uganda 73

The Uganda Silverbacks went into the dressing room at half-time of the clash with Cape Verde with a bounce in their step, having narrowed a double-digit lead down to two points.

In the third quarter, Cape Verde pressed on the accelerator again, and this time the Silverbacks were overpowered.

Day One of the FIBA Afrobasket Qualifiers in Tunisia left Mandy Juruni’s Silverbacks licking their wounds after succumbing to a 78-73 loss to a very familiar opponent, who threw various jabs at them, and particularly in a lopsided third quarter when they ran away with 26-14.

Robinson Opong drained a game-high 25 points, with many of them in the fourth quarter when the Silverbacks were labouring to prevent Cape Verde from stretching their lead to an embarrassing gap. Adam Seiko and Brandon Ssebirumbi added 16 and 11 points respectively for Uganda, who won the final quarter 27-18, although in fairness Cape Verde pulled key starters with minutes to play.

Uganda, unable to penetrate Cape Verde’s defence with the same ease as their opponents, resorted to shooting from distance, and of the Silverbacks’ 32 three-point attempts, only three were converted.

At times, it was a case of dying by the three, but under the circumstances, Uganda had little wiggle room.

Cape Verde are without key star players, just like the Silverbacks, but they still have a lot more weapons in their setup. It showed, as they secured their first victory, to move within two more of a qualification ticket.

Uganda will try for their first win tomorrow against Nigeria.