Friday, September 8
•UCU Lady Canons 74-67 KIU Rangers
•UCU Canons 71-79 City Oilers
Remaining Games:
Sunday, September 10
•Nabisunsa Vs KCCA Leopards
•JKL Lady Dolphins Vs A1 Challenge
•Ndejje Angels Vs Rezlife Saints
•Magic Stormers Vs UCU Lady Canons
•KCCA Panthers Vs D-Mark Power
Wednesday, September 13
•UCU Lady Canons vs Nkumba Lady Marines
•UCU Canons Vs KCCA Panthers
UCU Canons are on the verge of relegation after a 71-79 defeat to City Oilers in their penultimate game of the regular season in the National Basketball League.
The result meant UCU Canons must beat KCCA Panthers due Wednesday in their last game.
With Rezlife Saints already relegated, the remaining slot will be either taken by UPDF Tomahawks or UCU Canons.
The defeat on Wednesday will see UCU Canons (9-10) move level on 29 points with UPDF, but the Army side have got a better head to head having beaten UCU in both games of the regular season.
The Canons find themselves in this mess having lost to Power in the second round by a walkover in a game that wasn’t played due to colour clash.
It’s a difficult and strange situation that UCU finds themselves into for a side that has always competed for the title.
They are two time beaten finalists to City Oilers in 2015 and 2019, both falling in game seven.
On Friday, needing to win to confirm their stay, the Canons trailed 23-14 after the first quarter and the lead grew to 21 points inside the third quarter.
UCU knitted an 8-point run from thereafter as they slowly closed the gap but Oilers had already done the damage.
Double doubles from Peter Sifuma (18pts, 12 rebs) and Abraham Isyagi (13pts, 12 rebs) proved not enough, and the same can be said of efforts from Lwabaga Ibanda (13) and Jimmy Otim (11) who hit double digits in scoring for the Canons.
Moses Maker (15), Titus Lual (13) and Luak Ruai (12) scored in double figures for the City Oilers who finish the season as the number one seeding heading into the playoffs with a 21-1 record.
