“Never underestimate the heart of a champion” goes an old adage. City Oilers may be bruised and short on size but they are getting it done.
On Wednesday night, the six-time National Basketball League champions edged closer to a seventh consecutive finals appearance after beating Warriors, 67-60, in Game 3 of the semifinals at Lugogo Indoor Stadium.
The opening ten minutes of the game were underwhelming from both sides as execution on offense was poor and the teams combined for 16 points with an even split.
However, the game opened up in the second quarter with Oilers assuming a nine-point (24-15) lead with about three and a half minutes to play. Warriors, through Stanley Mugerwa Amisi Saidi and Jonathan Kambala, put on a 10-1 run to tie the game at 25 with just under a minute to play before Tony Drileba closed the period with a pair of lay-ups for Oilers to lead by four points (29-25) at the long break.
Mugerwa and Saidi quickly wiped out the deficit at the start of the third quarter and sparked a 9-0 run for Warriors. Once Oilers got on board in the third quarter through the player of the game James Okello, it was back and forth but Oilers had a 1-point (45-44) lead heading into the final quarter.
It was a tight fourth quarter to start with Warriors going to their frontcourt of Saidi and Mugerwa who troubled Oilers on the inside. However, when Saidi was withdrawn midway the quarter, Oilers go breathing room to pull away and never looked back.
Okello scored 19 points and picked 11 rebounds to pace City Oilers, Tony Drileba added 17 points, Ben Komakech had 11 points while Landry Ndikumana grabbed game-high 18 rebounds to go with 8 points.
Amisi Saidi poured in an efficient 26 points to go with 10 rebounds in a losing effort and Stanley Mugerwa the only other Warriors to score in double figures had 10 points and pulled down as many rebounds.
Game 4 of the series is Friday night at Lugogo.
