By Charles Mutebi
THE UCU Canons still respect the Kyambogo Warriors. They also continue to beat them.
“For the record, it is by God’s grace that we are defeating the Warriors,” said Ivan Enabu after leading the Canons to their third win in three games over the FUBA men’s defending champions on Sunday at Lugogo.
The critical factor, of course, is UCU’s latest victory by 64-61, was in game one of the best-of-five semi-final playoff series and the Warriors are running out of explanations.
They can no longer say UCU’s wins came in the regular season. Gad Eteu’s team can no longer also claim to have a lot of time on their hands. Come game two on Friday, the Warriors must end their unprecedented losing streak against Nick Natuhereza’s team.
Many still fancy Kyambogo’s size advantage to determine this series but that might not happen if they don’t find an answer to UCU’s heart and speed. Not to mention Enabu, who remains their tormentor-in-chief.
This time Enabu made a game-high 17 points and seven-assists and, of course, his usual quota of amazing moments; the highlight being a 30 minute spell midway through the fourth period when he finished two fast-breaks with a dunk off either hand.
Enabu’s younger sibling Jimmy also hurt Kyambogo, sinking 11 points, the last two a run-away dunk that earned him a controversial technical foul for hanging too long on the rim with UCU leading 61-58 two minutes to the end.
But Steven Okias, Warriors second-highest scorer with 13 points, missed one of the two resultant free throws to let the Canons off-the-hook. In all, Kyambogo missed 12 free throws and 18 three-point attempts compared to UCU who missed eight and 11 respectively. Eric Malinga was Kyambogo’s top-scorer with 14 points.
In the women’s game, Carol Nantaro scored two of her six points with five seconds on the clock to lead the KCC Leopards to a 53-51 win over A1 Challenge in game one of their semi-final series.
Miriam Hamala gunned a game-high 18 for KCC while Hatima Kassim and Betty Namukasa were A1’s top-scorers with 11 points apiece.