City Oil stun Power in overtime

By Charles Mutebi

Zone Five Club Championships 

Women: Eagle Wings 53 KCCA 47

Men: Urunani 71 Warriors 56

Airtel National Basketball League

Women: Stormers 45 A1 44

Men: City Oil 82 Power 69

Sunday

Women: Gladiators v Nabisunsa, UCU v Sparks

Men: Heaters v Vegetarian, KIU v Rhinos, Power v Nkumba

LAST season, Jimmy Enabu rarely got the chance to be on the floor when his team needed to navigate through close contests. This season, Enabu is trusted to not only score but control the offense when the game is on the line.  

Of course, the reason for the role-change is the change of clubs and on Friday at Lugogo, Enabu showed his former side what they are missing.

The combo guard played over forty minutes on the way to sinking 18 points as City Oil defeated D’Mark Power 82-69 in overtime in the Airtel National Basketball League.  

At Power, Enabu was just one of many options. At City Oil, he is a go-to star, alongside Kami Kabenge, who grabbed a game-high 27 points and 13 boards.

Power has more scoring options than City Oil but as Enabu and Kabange showed, two reliable scorers can do just fine if backed up with some good defence.  

And consider this, City Oil had more rebounds than Power (65-50), more steals (23-13) and less turnovers (27-37). Ramadan Arur bagged 17 points for City Oil, who survived Isaac Afidra’s last second shot at the end of regulation time, with the scores tied at 64 aside.  

Power, who played without the injured Ben Komakech, trailed 39-26 at halftime but rallied to take the lead for the first time since the first quarter with four minutes to play in the last period.

Norman Blick led Power with 17 points, Isaac Afidra made 12 points and 10 rebounds while Michael Kojo and Joseph Ikong nailed 11 points apiece. Emma Enabu added 10.  

In the women’s ANBL, Carol Nyafwono snatched 14 points and 13 rebounds as the Magic Stormers rallied from a seven-point halftime deficit to outlast A1 Challenge 45-44. Hatima Kassim scored 13 for A1, who lost to the Stormers for the second time this season.  

In the FIBA Africa Zone Five Club Championships in Burundi, Uganda’s Riham Warriors and KCCA Leopards lost in the men’s and women’s semi-finals respectively to Burundi’s Urunani and Kenya’s Eagle Wings. Urunani beat the Warriors 71-56, Eagle Wings edged KCCA 53-47.