The Uganda U-18 basketball team have been drawn with defending champions Egypt and powerhouse Tunisia in group B of the African championship starting Friday in Kigali, Rwanda.
The Junior Silverbacks are appearing at this stage for the first time and will be in new territory when they step onto the floor.
Uganda qualified after defeating Kenya in the qualifiers that attracted only two countries with Uganda hosting the event in Kampala.
Team Uganda, led by national team manager Mohamed Santur, left for Kigali on Wednesday and are set to start the campaign with Democratic Republic of Congo on Friday.
While they will be facing off with sides they barely know a thing about, Uganda will go to compete and team captain, Mathew Ochieng is confident they have all it takes. He spoke to Kawowo Sports before the team’s departure.
We have really prepared and we want to go and compete.
Only two tickets are available and this will see the winner and the runners-up qualify for the FIBA U-18 world championship set to take place in Cairo, Egypt later this year.
GROUP A: Rwanda Mali Ivory Coast Zimbabwe Mali Gabon
GROUP B: Egypt Tunisia Angola Benin DR Congo Uganda