James Okello’s two free throws were the only bench points registered by the team.
City Oilers are moving closer to the Basketball Africa League elimination door following yet another defeat in the Nile Conference.
The Ugandan champions fell 96-68 to Guinean side SLAC Tuesday evening in Cairo, Egypt, to drop to a 0-3 record and stay bottom of the log with two games to play.
Mandy Juruni’s side were simply outclassed by a hungrier SLAC side that got out of the blocks early to lead 24-13 after the first quarter.
SLAC was dominant and took the second quarter 20-12 to lead by 19 points (44-25) going into the halftime break.
Zeljko Zecevic’s charges conducted a scoring clinic in the third frame, pouring in 33 and limiting Oilers to 24 to lead 77-49 by 28 with 10 minutes to play.
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Oilers currently occupy the bottom spot on the log and must move into the top four by the end of the tournament to make it to Kigali, Rwanda, for the playoffs.
The Oilers had some shots falling in the fourth frame but were porous on defence and succumbed to a 28-point blowout defeat.
James Justice Jr. and Falando Jones were the only players able to give Oilers offence as the rest struggled to get going.
Justice Jr. scored a game-high 30 points, while Jones added 20 for the Ugandan champions.
Germaine Roebuck Jr., who exploded for 28 points against Al Ahly, only managed seven, while Ngor Barnaba got eight.
Titus Lual, the other starter on the team, only drained a single free throw in 21 points.
There was no meaningful contribution from the bench as well. James Okello’s free throws were the only bench points registered by the team.
Mathematics now
With only four teams progressing to the playoffs, City Oilers will only get into the conversation by winning their last two games of the conference.
And yet even after winning those games will be no guarantee.
Games against Ferroviario da Beira of Mozambique and Cape Town Tigers are now must-wins for the eight-time National Basketball League.
Any other slip-up will automatically rule the Ugandan side out of contention for a slot in the playoffs slated for May 21-28 in Kigali, Rwanda.
Basketball Africa League
Nile Conference
Tuesday result
City Oilers 68-96 SLAC
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