City Oilers’ head coach Mandy Juruni credited his troops after beating Zimbabwe’s JBC 84-71 on Wednesday afternoon.
It was a close game all through the quarters before the Oilers ran away with it in the final minutes of the game played at Ellis Park Arena, Johannesburg.
Speaking after the game, Juruni believes his troops can still improve since each game provides different lessons to take home.
“We played better than our first game more so as a team we greatly improved offensively,” he said.
“I am sure the team will keep growing and getting better. Every game provides us with lessons and the chemistry will start to form,” he added.
“Some of the players that played heavy minutes [in the previous game] were fatigued but Fayed (Baale), Tony (Drileba) and Titus (Lual) gave us some good energy off the bench.”
Juruni further underlined they can still prevent making offensive turnovers but also utilise a transitional defence to keep their paint safe.
“Defense was a little better, got a couple of steals and caused turnovers. However, I believe we do better by rebounding more and also imploring a transitional defence,” he concluded.
Parrish Petty had a stellar game dropping a game-high 29 points and pulled down seven rebounds.
Lual turned up big and strong on the stage as he cleaned the glass with 13 rebounds of which nine were defensive.
With two wins in the bag, the Oilers who are into the semifinals take on Beira today at 6 PM (EAT).
