Basketball in Africa

Wandegeya

Friday results
M: UCU 80-69 Falcons
W: KCC 60-38 Mak Sparks
Today at YMCA
W: KIU v Crane (6pm)
Nabisunsa v Mak Cubs (2pm)
Division Three
Bush Court v Crane (4pm)
Stone v City Oil (12pm)
Jackets v Shooters (10am)

The pain of losing 80-69 to UCU Canons in the MTN-Fuba League on Friday night may not be the last 7UP Falcons may have to endure if making the play-offs remains a realistic target.

Falcons were forced to remove Kenyan power forward Philip Alweny from their roster following the warm up as the Fuba technical committee stopped him due to lack of registration papers. Alweny allegedly absconded from Co-operative Bank and must seek clearance from the Kenya Basketball Federation (KBF).

An argument between club chairman Denis Mbidde and a combination of Fuba officials led by technical boss William Musaazi enthused in front of the patient crowd. “We couldn’t do anything about him (Alweny) before doing a thorough investigation,” Musaazi said when quizzed about allowing the player to feature in two games already. But Mbidde said: this is a sign of a federation being inept and ineffective because we wrote the email for his release and all that remains is Fuba to send a two-sentence letter to KBF. If the irregularities are confirmed, Falcons, now 4-4, will have to forfeit the two points for beating Charging Rhino and the single point earned in the loss to Warriors.

All this chaos precipitated into a 30-minute delayed start but Falcons still got off to a flier taking the first quarter 28-19. Ex-Falcons guards Sudi Ulanga (23) and Sande Okot (19) commanded the offense lasting the entire distance. UCU took the rest of the periods 22-18, 16-9 and 22-14 with a dominant performance from their big men. Robert Ogweno scored 12 points and 11 rebounds while Desmond Owili made nine points and 10 boards.

American Jachin Wettstone, 6ft 9’, contributed four points and three blocks as both teams rotated only seven players with UCU coach Nick Natuhereza looking more restless than ever in lifting his side to 5-3. Abdullahi Ramadhan dropped 18 points and Peter Elungat added 17 in the losing effort worth 40 minutes. “My players were worn out. We missed Alweny” said Falcons coach Sam Obol.