Basketball in Africa

By Usher Komugisha

Airtel National Basketball League

Division One

KIU Titans 71 Power 67

Stormers 48 Falcons 89

Division Two

Bushcourt 51 K’la University 46

MBC Rocks 47 Sharing Youth 50

Division Three

Ssaku 74 Emperors 72

TLC 20 Ssaku 0

Planets 37 Phenoms 45

Crane High 37 St. Michael 50

Women

Leopards 54 KIU Rangers 42

CH Makerere 62 Cubs 25

After defeating their closest rivals-Warriors, it was anticipated that Power would go unbeaten in the first round of the Airtel National Basketball League.

But little did they know that the KIU Titans had something up their sleeves.

The Titans handed the league reigning champions Power their first defeat this season 71-67 on a tense Sunday evening at the YMCA Ground in front of an expectant crowd.

Power outscored the Titans 25-14 in the first quarter but a great comeback by the university side in the second and third quarter saw them limit Power to just nine and seven points in the second and third quarter respectively.

Meanwhile, during those two quarters KIU dropped 18 and 17 points respectively to dominate this game and silence a frustrated and desperate Power side.

 

“We really had a bad day but we shall correct those mistakes,” explained Power’s shooting guard, Jimmy Enabu who managed only four points and three rebounds.

Titans’ new recruits Salim Ali and Michael Makiadi from Heaters dropped 17 and 12 points respectively to inspire their side to their seventh victory this season having lost to only the Ndejje Angels earlier. Brian Wati also added 11 points for KIU.

This moves the Titans in the third position with 15 points, four behind Warriors and two behind Power who have played two and one more game in that order. Falcons now moves to fourth with 14 points.

“We shall not get excited over this win because we want to take a game at a time. We have always had a terrible first round in the past years but this time round we are on track,” pointed out KIU coach Nimrod Kaboha.