Basketball in Africa

by Charles Mutebi
Kampala

EARLY pace-setters KIU face a mammoth test from the UCU Canons today at Lugogo in the pick of the weekend's basketball action.

The current league leaders, who beat Crane High on Wednesday to take their record to two wins in two, will have to conquer their university rivals to preserve their perfect start.
While the Kansanga-based outfit has beaten the Canons in a few inter-university competitions, they lost to the Mukono University team in their previous two league meetings.
However, the Canons underlined their potency last week by convincingly defeating the defending national champions Mogas Falcons and will be fancied to end KIU's short pretty run.
Meanwhile, A1 Challenge's match with the MUK Sparks will see Olivia Mulwana and Barbara Okot face the side they left in the transfer season. The pair who helped A1 defeat the Makerere Cubs on Wednesday will turn their guns on the very side they led to national glory in 2003.
On Friday, Sadolin Power bounced back from a 22-18 deficit in the first quarter to take 37-30 lead into halftime before going on to secure a five point defeat of the Nkumba Marines at Lugogo. Isaac Afidra netted a team-high 20 points while Richard Balemwa added 15 off the bench before fouling out to help Power recover from their opening loss to KIU last week.

Miracle scored the winning basket with seven seconds left to avoid an embarrassing defeat to the KCC Lions, the kind of problem the KIU Rangers did not have as they humiliated the Lady Bucks to turn what had been a promising encounter into a mismatch.