By Patricia Turyahebwa

National Basketball League Playoffs finals

Women: UCU 64 JKL 56

Men: Namuwongo 76 City Oilers 71

Saidi Amisi was unstoppable as the Namuwongo Blazers restored parity in the National Basketball League playoffs after beating defending champions City Oilers on Sunday evening at Lugogo to force Game 7.

By halftime, Amisi had sunk 20 points of which 10 were from the charity line.

The fourth quarter however saw Amisi and Oilers’ star player Francis Azolibe ejected after running into foul trouble.

Amisi finished with a game high 27 points while his teammates Chris Omanye had 15 points and 10 rebounds, and Paul Odongo contributed 14 points to the winning effort.

Blazers have battled back from trailing 3-1 in the series and a close call late in Game 5 to make the seven-time champions wait a little longer to clinch what could be an eight title.

They approached Game 6 with so much zeal after allowing the Oilers to lead the first quarter, rallied back to leave the contest even at half time.

Oilers’ James Okello led the scoring for his side with 17 points, while Ivan Muhwezi contributed 13 points and Tonny Drileba chipped in with 11 points.

It is a sporting first for the Blazers as no side in the history of the game in Uganda has a side managed to overturn a 3-1 deficit and force a Game 7.

City Oilers’ problems have been compounded by the absence of their star player Jimmy Enabu who picked up a hamstring injury in Game 4 and faces a race against time to be fit for the defending champions’ Basketball Africa League campaign.

The Blazers played good defence and ensured that the Oilers turned the ball over one too many times — 23 in total.

They were able to set their tone early, something the Oilers have been known for, but most importantly, they managed to control the tempo of the game in the fourth quarter which had been their Achilles heel the first three games.

Déjà vu

The UCU Lady Canons also managed to force a Game 7 against the JKL Lady Dolphins after a rather comfortable 64-56 win.

Like the Blazers, the Lady Canons once trailed 3-1 and on Sunday, they made the most of the absence of Dolphins’ Stella Oyella who is set to play professional netball in England.

UCU’s Millicent Otieno fired the game-high 20 points, while her teammates Rose Akon contributed 15 points and Bridget Aber scored 15.

Dolphins’ point guard Evelyn Nakiyinji top scored with 15 points from the bench.

UCU assistant coach Emmanuel Kiguyi believes his side can do even better in Game 7.

“We started slow but when we recovered in the second quarter we did not look back. Instead, we brought a lot of fight which made the difference. I know no one gave UCU a chance because of the fact that JKL was unbeaten, but we know we are a good team," noted Kiguyi.