Roebuck Jr. scored a game-high 28 points and picked 11 rebounds, while Jones and Justice Jr. added 15 and 11 points, respectively.
City Oilers dug themselves a hole too deep to come out of in their Basketball Africa League clash with Al Ahly on Saturday.
The Oilers scored 70 points against Al Ahly and lost by two points to drop to a 0-2 record in the Nile Conference.
Of the 70 points scored, 34 came in the fourth quarter, with the Ugandan champions coming back from a 33-point deficit to fall short by a basket.
Falando Jones could have won it for the Oilers with the last play of the game but was denied sight of the basket and elected to pass to Titus Lual, who released the ball after the buzzer and still failed to connect.
The hosts barely celebrated at the end of the game, probably stunned by the fightback of Mandy Juruni's charges.
Ahly were comfortable from the start, leading 20-14 after the first quarter and stretching the lead to 13 points (40-27) going into the halftime break.
Oilers were sluggish and struggled for offence in the third quarter, in which they were limited to just nine points.
The lead ballooned to 33 points at some point in the third quarter and was only cut to 25 after Germaine Roebuck Jr. dunked to lift the Oilers' spirits with 0.59 left on the clock.
With 5.58 left on the clock in the fourth frame, Lual sank a three for the Oilers to cut the deficit to 20 points, which sparked the fightback.
12:04 - 28.04.2023
BAL One game down, can City Oilers make the Basketball Africa League playoffs?
Defeat against Al Ahly on Saturday would leave the Oilers needing to win the rest of the games back-to-back to get their campaign in order.
Roebuck Jr. and Jones did most of the damage to give Oilers hope down the stretch. Jones' connection from downtown cut the lead to four with 1.35 left on the clock to silence the partisan crowd.
The tension grew further when Omar Oraby missed a layup to allow Oilers quick transition. James Justice Jr. was fouled and went to the line to convert both free throws with 25 seconds left.
The Egyptians chose to run down the clock, but Oilers got a stop and had two seconds to tie or win the game.
But tasked with the responsibility of making a big play, Jones was denied a clean look, and Oilers ran out of time.
Roebuck Jr. scored a game-high 28 points and picked 11 rebounds, while Jones and Justice Jr. added 15 and 11 points, respectively.
Nuni Omot and Oraby led the host team's charge, scoring 17 and 11 points, respectively. The latter added 10 rebounds.
There will be positives and negatives for Juruni and his team to dissect going into the last three games of the conference.
Al Ahly have now joined Petro de Luanda on two wins while Oilers are still searching for their first.
The 0-2 start has the eight-time Ugandan champions fifth on the log at the moment.
Basketball Africa League
Result
City Oilers 70-72 Al Ahly
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