FIBA Africa World Cup qualifiers

Guinea 76 Uganda 69

Ivory Coast 91 Uganda 80

Angola 84 Uganda 62

Uganda’s coach George Galanopoulos put the blame on himself for the Silverbacks 76-69 loss to Guinea in the FIBA World Cup Qualifiers Sunday in Abidjan, when a collapse in the last five minutes of the fourth quarter handed the West Africans a stunning victory.

“That loss is 100% on me,” Galanopoulos said in the post-match conference.

“I didn’t have us organized well enough on either end of the floor in the last two to three minutes and unfortunately our players felt the brunt of it, so I have got to be better for our guys; they played their hearts out.

“They played their hearts out, they were the ones that gave us the lead and I just need to be better for them. I didn’t communicate some things to them that I needed to.”

Uganda took a ten-point lead in the fourth quarter when Jonathan Komagum’s dunk put the Silverbacks 64-54 ahead.

But Guinea outscored the Silverbacks 22-5 the rest of the way to complete a remarkable rally and send Uganda to a third defeat in as many days.

The Silverbacks were in disbelief after the match, but Galanopoulos insists the future is bright.

“We will be better next time,” added Galanopoulos, “this is not the end of Ugandan basketball by any means, so we will be better next time.”