Coach Mandy Juruni admits Oilers not good enough

FIBA Africa Clubs Champions Cup

BEAC 67 Oilers 65

"We have realized we are only big in East Africa. But on the African stage we are still way behind."  

The words of City Oilers coach Mandy Juruni after his team's failure to qualify for the quarterfinals of the 2016 FIBA Africa Clubs Champions Cup here in Cairo.

It's an admission that was triggered by three straight defeats in Group B, the last of which was a painful and puzzling 67-65 overtime loss to Cameroon's BEAC on Sunday.  

"We need to get much better players and come to this tournament regularly if we want to do well," Juruni added.

The Oilers are still reeling from the BEAC defeat, which was not only unexpected but costly, denying them qualification to the knockouts. Kami Kabange grabbed a game-high 24 points and Stanley Ociti added 13 points and 18 rebounds for the Oilers against a BEAC team that simply came out and bullied the Ugandan champions. Ben Komakech had 11 points and 11 rebounds for Juruni's Oilers but Jimmy Enabu only managed eight and struggled to cope with the more physical Cameroonians.  

The Oilers were forced into 25 turnovers, were out-rebounded 55-51 and had 19 free throws attempts to BEAC's 27.  

"I think we came to the game with the mindset that we were going to win and that hurt us," Juruni conceded.  

The Oilers were down 20-5 after six minutes but cut the deficit to 32-27 by halftime. BEAC led 39-38 before an incident filled fourth quarter that saw the Oilers lead 59-57 with 26 seconds left in regulation.

BEAC had possession and missed two attempts before Mohaman Nkene picked the offensive rebound and picked a shooting foul with seven seconds to play. He converted two on the line and sent the game to overtime.