Sunday, August 27 (Lugogo)
*KIU Rangers 63-59 Magic Stormers
*KIU Titans 101-84 Ndejje Angels
*A1 Challenge 60-66 KCCA Panthers
*City Oilers 80-66 JKL Dolphins
*Nam Blazers 62-88 Rezlife Saints
Nam Blazers suffered a shocking defeat against relegation strugglers Rezlife Saints in their last regular season game on Sunday at Lugogo.
Last season’s runners up lost 62-88 against the league’s newcomers.
Dickson Asiku scored 18 points while Chuol Nyuot added 11 for the Blazers who rested a couple of their stars like Chris Omanye, Jimmy Williams, Paul Odong, Mike Makiadi and Peter Cheng.
Benjamin Kawumi scored a game high 20 points including four-made threes for the Saints.
Joshua Maiba had a double double of 16 points and 14 rebounds while Michael Otieno and Michael Ssematimba added 17 and 12 points respectively in the victory.
The Saints, needing to win to keep their slim survival chances alive, understood the assignment and were 19-10 up after the first quarter.
Despite Nam Blazers cutting the deficit to just three going into the last quarter, they were limited to just eight points as Rezlife who knitted a 12-0 run, scored 31 at the other end to claim their biggest win of the season.
Nam Blazers made 29 turnovers and were also out-rebounded 42-45 in a game coach Stephen Nyeko wanted to test his squad depth.
The Blazers finish the season with 17 wins and five losses (17-5), with the other four losses coming against UCU Canons, KIU Titans and City Oilers – the latter beat the side twice.
Nam Blazers will likely finish in second position on the table and hence meet the team that will finish seventh in the best of three quarterfinals playoffs.
The win is the fourth for Rezlife who will need to win their last two remaining games against their fellow relegation strugglers Ndejje Angels and UPDF Tomahawks to have a chance of staying in the league.
Rezlife Saints and surviving relegation are still mentioned in the same sentence after Ndejje had their two wins including one against City Oilers overturned by FUBA.
