Basketball in Africa

It took the Miracle Eagles 16 years to get their first league victory over D’Mark Power. It has taken them eight months to get the second.

Ivan Lumanyika grabbed 17 points and 18 rebounds and Yusuf Mohammed dictated play on the way to a gamehigh 19 points as the Eagles stunned the reigning men’s national league champions 70-63 Sunday night at the YMCA. Yusuf and Co. gave Power a scare when the teams met in the first round but Bernice Ankunda’s side didn’t heed. The Eagles made them pay.

“This win feels more than good,” said man-of-the-match Yusuf, who joined Miracle this year and is leading the team’s recovery.

Miracle’s finest moment came eight months ago when they thumped Power 85-60 in Game 1 of their play-off semifinals series; and while this victory won’t have equal gravitas, it is quite significant given how the Eagles started this campaign. The fact they outplayed Power in the last seconds, when the game was still on the line, adds extra weight to the win.

Power were uncharacteristically disjointed and none of their players made double figures — Emmanuel Enabu, Isaac Luggudde and Collin Mukiza scoring nine apiece.

Still, the champions have now lost three of their last four games and are looking extremely vulnerable ahead of the regional Zone V club championships next month.

Power’s defeat summed up a rough weekend for the top seeds, which included UCU’s 59-44 victory over KIU and Victoria University Heaters’ 46-36 triumph over the Ndejje Angels.

The league continues at the YMCA tomorrow