Basketball in Africa

UCU Invitational Men's Final
City Oil 77 UCU Canons 69
Women's Final
Canons B 34 Canons A 31
Men's third place playoff
Ndejje 34 Riders 31
IN the final act of the 2013 UCU Invitational, Jimmy Enabu majestically soared and threw down a two-handed dunk.
Then he teasingly swung on the rattling rim for some seconds, as if to emphasise the point that he had been the best player and that City Oil were deserving champions.
Yes, Enabu and City Oil are - to borrow a common local colloquialism - 'in the thing'.
Enabu, signed from D'Mark Power, dropped a game-high 24 points to lead City Oil - newly promoted to the FUBA men's top flight - to an impressive 77-68 overtime win over hosts UCU Canons in the final of the men's draw of the preseason basketball tournament, held at Uganda Christian University, Mukono, over the weekend. Enabu was named men's MVP.
Wealthy and ambitious, City Oil have been the talk of the preseason with observers keen to see what team they are going to assemble.
Their line-up, or at least the one they have for now, was on display at the two-day event and it delivered.
It is still early days but City Oil, which was coached by 2012 men's national championship winning coach Mandy Juruni, sent out an early message in beating UCU in their own backyard.
New signings Yusuf Mohammed (16 points), Ramadan Arur (13) and Andrew Opio (12) all impressed.
The Ndejje Angels, who have also heavily recruited performed well at the 20-team event, and only missed out on the men's final by a single point after UCU beat them in the semis 45-44 in overtime.
Canons B defeated Canons A 34-31 to win the ladies crown, thanks largely to MVP Maureen Amoding.