Uganda 59-98 Nigeria
Uganda has received a baptism of fire at their debut appearance in Africa’s biggest Basketball competition – Afrobasket.
After falling to Tunisia by 22 points on the opening night, it couldn’t get worse than it did in the Silverbacks’ second game at the tournament as they were blown out by another Group A heavy weights and tournament favourites Nigeria.
After a 27-16 first quarter, Uganda scored the first five points of the second and trimmed Nigeria’s lead down to 6 points as D’Tigers went scoreless for the opening couple of minutes of the quarter.
Forward, Al-Farouq Aminu knocked down a 3-ball with 7:10 to open Nigeria’s second quarter and the flood gates and Uganda never got close again as they failed to defend the arc.
Chamberlain Oguchi was Uganda’s tormentor in chief. The guard exploded for game high 30 points as he connected on 8-of-14 from downtown.
Four other Nigerians logged on double figures. Al-Farouq Aminu scored 14 points, M Umeh had 11 points, A Aminu chipped in with 10 and Stan Okoye whose attempted dunk in the fourth quarter damaged the back board also contributed 10 points.
Skipper, Steven Omony followed his 15 points opening night performance with team high 20 points and 9 rebounds to pace Uganda. Samuel Mukooza contributed 8 points off the bench while Samuel Kalwanyi had 5 points and 6 rebounds.
Uganda’s next game is on Sunday against the Central Africa Republic who have lost as many games.
In the games played on Day 3, Tunisia rolled past CAR 68-52, Mali beat Gabon 78-54 while Egypt edged Cameroon 83-77.