City Oilers hogged headlines for wrong reasons

City Oilers will leave to remember the year 2024 for several reasons, good but mostly bad.Despite winning a tenth straight championship to emphasize their dominance in Ugandan basketball, Oilers endured one of the most challenging years since inception.Andrew Tendo’s troops defeated KIU Titans 64-51 in Game Four to complete the finals sweep and end what had been a long season.Titus Lual, who won a second straight Playoffs MVP gong, scored 11 points and collected 14 rebounds in the close out game and beat American guard Petty Parrish to the accolade.Parrish averaged 18 points, four rebounds and two assists, and contributed a game-high 21 points on championship night.He was the difference for the club as the Oilers closed the semifinal series and carried his form into the finals.Tough yearWith winning the league back home seemingly a formality, Oilers had their eyes on rubbing shoulders with the best club on the continent.And when the time came, the Ugandan giants were drawn in the Nile Conference of the Basketball Africa League, alongside Al Ahly, Al Ahly Benghazi and Bangui.The return was as the Ugandan outfit failed to make it out of the group and into the playoffs.Losses to Bangui (2), Al Ahly Benghazi (2) and Al Ahly (1) meant that the Oilers would fail to make the playoffs for the second time in a row.And if that was not disappointing enough, what followed upon the team’s return to Kampala threatened to decimate the whole organization.Three senior players, Jimmy Enabu, James Okello and Tonny Drileba walked out on the team after a series of disagreements, starting from the lack of minutes in the BAL to remuneration after the competition.What started as a minor misunderstanding ended with the trio leaving midway through the regular season.But even with their departure, the Oilers won all their games en route to the championship.More damageWith an already depleted squad following the mid-season departures, the last thing Oilers needed was to lose any more human resource.But another scandal was in waiting and forward Edrine Walujjo was, on August 6, arrested during the Fiba 3X3 Nations League, on allegations of betting or gambling and game fixing, and detained at Jinja Road Police station.Charges were preferred against him Vide Police File No. Jinja Road Police CRB/734/2024.The Fuba Disciplinary Committee then recommended that; Mr. Walujo Edrine be suspended for five years in accordance with Section 7.04(f) of the FUBA Competition Rules and Regulations 2024.The player could not participate in any of the Fuba sanctioned events either as an Athlete, a Fan or an Administrator with any of the Clubs affiliated to the Federation.Walujjo was accused of approaching  the Benin women’s team players during the Fiba 3X3 Nations League with an attractive offer to throw away one of their games.His suspension left Oilers further depleted on court and also having to clear their name of any connection to Walujjo’s monkeyshines.No BALCity Oilers’ last activity of the year was in Nairobi, Kenya, where the team was fighting to book a ticket back to the BAL next year.Going into the Road To BAL Elite 16 Division East Qualifiers as the only side to have played the BAL before, the Ugandan side was among the favourites to book one of the two available tickets.New signings to see the Oilers through the qualifiers included Nigerian centre Israel Otobo, guards Parrish, Falando Jones and Germaine Roebuck Jr.But the team left the stage pondering their next move following a dismal display in the business end of the qualifiers.Oilers finished fourth with a 2-3 record that was highlighted by two big defeats against Burundi’s Urunani and host side Nairobi City Thunder.With only two tickets on offer, Oilers needed to reach the finals to return to the continent’s biggest basketball stage at which they have featured the last two editions.Defeat against Urunani in their last game saw the nine-time National Basketball League finalists draw Thunder in the semifinal and, against a partisan crowd and short of a bench to compete with the hosts, it was the end of the road.Oilers had started the tournament with a commanding 77-47 win over South Sudan’s Fox Basketball, and followed it up with a 93-73 victory over Zambia’s Matero Magic.The top of the table clash with Urunani would later expose the Oilers' flaws.From leading by as many as 22 points in the first half, Tendo and his charges dismally collapsed in the third and fourth quarter to lose 78-75 and end up finishing second in the group. Against City Thunder, Oilers were up against a good team with the backing of the home crowd and ended up losing the semifinal 72-62.As if that was not bad enough, Oilers fell 77-75 to Urunani to miss out on bronze and finish fourth.Kenya’s City Thunder and Cape Verde’s Kriol Stars are the two sides that booked BAL tickets.Juniors shineThe Uganda U18 basketball sides stole the headlines in June after winning the Fiba Zone V U18 Afrobasket Qualifiers hosted in Kampala.The Junior Silverbacks and Gazelles, backed by a full-to-capacity Lugogo Indoor Stadium, overcame Rwanda to win the Zone V Qualifiers in spectacular fashion and attract wild celebrations from the partisan home crowd.First, it was the Junior Gazelles who dominated their Rwandan counterparts 82-52 to start off the celebrations before the Junior Silverbacks outlasted Rwanda 69-66 in an intense matchup.Resty Nanangwe, the eventual tournament top scorer, recorded a game high 21 points to improve her average to 25 and take home the top scorer’s accolade.Shiphrah Kiranda came off the bench to contribute a double-double of 18 points and 12 rebounds while eventual MVP Modesta Anyango posted nine points, nine rebounds and seven assists.John Omondi’s charges were heads and shoulders above the rest of the field and dominated all the three opponents enroute to a 5-0 record, the title and a ticket to Afrobasket.The Junior Silverbacks’ clash with Rwanda was the closest encounter there was throughout the seven days of the competition.Andrew Tendo’s charges found themselves in unfamiliar territory, having to chase a game down the stretch, with Rwanda’s point guard Dylan Kayijuka refusing to go down without a fight.But led by Tejan Rugette, the team captain and eventual MVP, Uganda executed better down the stretch to win the final.Peter Sserunjogi, Edrine Ekau, Mukisa Nkuggwa, Victor Makmot and Gideon Ekukwai are some of the youngsters who announced themselves to the Ugandan crowd during the tournament.In the continental showpiece held in South Africa, the Junior Gazelles finished a respectable fourth while the Junior Silverbacks struggled and finished 12th.