Warriors face Falcons in FUBA men's final

Nov 25, 2012

It is the FUBA men’s top division finals many wanted to see, one that promises plenty of fireworks. Now everyone awaits Game 1 for the first clue of where the 2012 championship is headed.

By Charles Mutebi

Final: Warriors v Falcons

It is the FUBA men’s top division finals many wanted to see, one that promises plenty of fireworks. Now everyone awaits Game 1 for the first clue of where the 2012 championship is headed.

Everyone with the potential exception of the UCU Canons and KIU Titans, the two teams who lost to the Warriors and Falcons respectively in the best-of-five semifinals.

Phillip Ameny snatched a game-high 21 and 11 rebounds as the Falcons defeated KIU 72-57 in Game 5 Friday at the MTN Arena.

Steven Omony added 12 points and 15 rebounds, Goeff Omondi and Abdallah Ramadan made 13 apiece for the Falcons, who led from wire to wire.

Michael Makiadi grabbed a team-high 13 points and 12 rebounds for KIU, with Richard Osano and Salim Ali adding 11 apiece.

Francis Kasekende, with 10 points, was the fourth Titan in double figures but despite the distribution of points, KIU were ultimately overmatched by a Falcons team with superior individual talent.

And it was the same story for UCU, whose overreliance on Desmond Owili and Sudi Ulanga for points inevitably proved their undoing against Kyambogo in Game 5.

While Owili drained a playoff-high 29 points (and 17 rebounds), the Warriors partly triumphed because they restricted Ulanga to 11 points, the lowest he has scored in the series.

By contrast, Kyambogo got big nights from Ivan Enabu and Michael Karuiki, two players, who had hitherto made little impact on the series.

Enabu, who incredibly scored no points in the last two games, sunk a team-high 19 points while Kariuki got 15 points and 11 rebounds.

In the end, it is the top two seeds that made it to the finals, leaving KIU and especially UCU to reflect on another near miss. UCU’s lack of sportsmanship remains a big challenge and the Canons must learn that one of the greatest virtues of sport is learning to lose with dignity.

For Owili, who had just had the performance of his FUBA career, to end Game 5 by committing nasty intentional fouls and asking his team-mates to do the same was just shameful - FUBA’s impotence in the face of such violence remains just as shocking.

And for some UCU players to refuse to shake hands with the Warriors after the series, well, it was childish and classless. With that attitude, UCU’s failure to reach the finals will continue to get few sympathisers.

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