- Game 7: City Oilers 74-62 Falcons (Oilers win series 4-3)
Pretty good is quite the understatement. Kami Kabange and Jimmy Enabu brought home the first championship with City Oilers on Friday night in a 74-62 Game 7 victory over the Falcons with a performance that was testament to what the pair has been all through the year and the finals.
Kami poured in game-high 27 points and Enabu added 20 points as the City Oilers made it one out of one in their first season in the premier basketball division.
“Well, what can I say? I am lost for words… It has been a tough season and here we are. I am glad for the team,” a joyous Oilers guard, Jimmy Enabu told Kawowo Sports.
After a balanced and cautious first quarter from both teams in which the Oilers were caught on the shot clock twice, the game started opening up and taking shape in the second frame – Oilers limited mistakes, Falcons couldn’t shoot.
“We didn’t capitalize on our opportunities and they (Oilers) did. You have to give them credit for that,” Falcons forward Steven Omony said.
Oilers outscored Falcons 15-10 and went into the halftime break leading by 7 points (31-24). The champions opened the third period with a 6-2 run to take a double-digit lead that they twice stretched to 19 points (47-28 and 55-36) and ultimately 21 points (58-37) at the end of the quarter.
“We didn’t have consistency in our concentration and that dealt us a big blow,” Omony who scored team high15 points added.
The Falcons tried to rally back in the final period, starting the quarter with an 11-0 run and trimmed the deficit to 10 points (48-58) with 6:01 but did not get any closer than 10 points as Kabange kept pushing Oilers into maintaining the double-digit lead.
“It was always going to be a tall order coming back from such a deficit,” Falcons’ coach Gad Eteu admitted.
“We gave away a big lead in the last game (Game 6) and we couldn’t repeat the same mistake in a championship game,” Oilers coach Mandy Juruni said on Falcons come back.
Abdullahi Ramadhan scored 14 points, 8 coming in the fourth quarter during the push. Philip Ameny matched game-high 15 points, 10 in the fourth quarter. The big man picked 10 rebounds.