FIBA Afrobasket Qualifiers

Libya 71 Uganda 59

Uganda 72 Nigeria 62

Cape Verde 78 Uganda 75 

A cold shooting outing, underlined by Robinson Opong’s 0-for-9 stat from three-point range, helped condemn the Uganda Silverbacks to a 71-59 loss to Libya as Mandy Juruni’s side ended the first round of the FIBA Afrobasket Qualifiers with a 1-2 record. 

With Opong, who scored 25 and an Afrobasket qualification record 39 points against Cape Verde and Nigeria, off Tony Drileba and Ivan Muhwezi carried the scoring load.

Drileba and Muhwezi scored 16 and 15 points respectively for the Silverbacks, who coughed up 15 fastbreak points to Libya, while scoring only four. In addition to that disparity, Libya outscored Uganda 34-16 in the paint to finish in second position in Group B, with two wins from three games.

Cape Verde, who beat Nigeria 78-62 for third consecutive win, booked their ticket to Afrobasket 2025 with a qualification leg to spare. The second round of qualifiers is in February 2025 and the Silverbacks need two more wins to guarantee their qualification to the continental showpiece.

Uganda were without Jimmy Enabu, Ishmail Wainwright, Brandon Davies, Arthur Kaluma and Deng Geu for the qualifiers in Tunisia, and the hope is at least three of them will be available for the decisive qualification round next year.