Action at UCU Invitational, Power media photo

Sunday, March 15
Finals
Men: Betway Power 40-53 UCU Canons
Women: UCU Lady Canons 38-49 JKL Lady Dolphins

UCU Canons and JKL Lady Dolphins were on Sunday night crowned champions of the UCU Invitational Basketball tournament.

UCU beat Betway Power to win the title in Men’s category while JKL eased past UCU in the Women’s division in a two-day tourney played at the Mukono campus.

JKL franchise (men and women) were the defending champions.

To reach this stage, UCU beat JKL Dolphins in semis while Power needed three overtime periods to edge seven-time NBL champions City Oilers.

UCU were hugely backed up by the home support and managed to outpace Power who had used up all the fuel against Oilers in their semi.

Crowd favourite Fayed Baale and David Deng Kongor were in high gear as UCU made a quick 8-0 run which set a platform for their deserved win against a new-looking Power team which was inspired by Denis Balungu’s hot hand.

JKL Lady Dolphins beat MUK Sparks and KIU Rangers in quarter and semifinals respectively.

The Lady Canons, playing without head coach Nicholas Natuhereza, overcame Renor Duhaga in the semis but could not match star studded JKL in a repeat of last year’s final.

Preview: How Far Can Nam Blazers Go?

Semis

Men:
*Betway Power 75-70 City Oilers (triple overtime)
*UCU Canons 58-44 JKL Dolphins

Women
*KIU Rangers 73-86 JKL Lady Dolphins
*UCU Lady Canons 60-49 Renor Duhaga

Individual Accolades

Top-scorers
*Women – Zainah Lokwameri (JKL) – 46 points
*Men – Salim Kisily (Power) – 73 points

MVP
*Women:Brenda Ekone (JKL Lady Dolphins)
*Men – David Kongor Deng (UCU Canons)