Basketball in Africa

Gladiators 35-70 Magic Stormers

Jimmy Enabu poured in season high 32 points, grabbed 10 rebounds and dished out 5 helpers to lead City Oilers to an 83-71 win over Warriors Wednesday night at the MTN Arena. Big man, Kami Kabange added 23 points and 13 rebounds as the pair formed a veritable two-man offense that Warriors couldn’t stop

Oilers (5-2) jumped at Warriors (4-2) right from tip-off and quickly established a double digit lead in the first quarter that they maintained through the first half. Warriors chipped away in the third quarter and trailed 47-55 at the end of the period but Oilers opened the final quarter with a 7-0 run to take the lead back into double figure and didn’t look back again. “It’s all consistence. We needed to be consistent and we were in this particular game. We did not allow them back into the game” Jimmy Enabu told Kawowo Sports

Warriors played catch-up all through the game and had several brief spurts but inevitably didn’t. Point guard, Ivan Enabu led the way for Warriors with team high 18 points, picked 7 rebounds and handed out 5 assists. Center, Henry Malinga added 13 points and 10 rebounds and Brian Gumisiriza chipped in with 10 points. “I think they had a better night than us. They capitalised on the mistakes we made” Ivan Enabu said. Ronnie Kasewu played with an injury and ambled slowly through the game making all the three normal 2s attempted but missed the three attempts beyond the arc and all nine freebies.

Oilers were buoyed up by the return of power forward, Arou Ramadhan (8 points, 9 rebounds) particularly on the defensive end of the floor and crashed Warriors on the glass out-rebounding the two time champions 63-39 and rejecting 5 shots. The only reason Oilers didn’t score more than 83 points was their inability to shot from the line. Oilers were 21-of-48 on non-contested shots.

In the women’s division, Magic Stormers blew-out Gladiators 70-35 behind Carol Nyafwono’s game high 21 points and 16 rebounds. Jackie Natocho and Sarah Nakitende contributed 9 points apiece for Stormers (4-3) while Rukia Meeme’s 5 points went along with 11 boards. Joan Muchiruku led Gladiators (2-6) with 14 points and guard, Stella Nikuze added 6 points. Charline Kirungi picked 14 rebounds for Gladiators.