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Two technical fouls were called against both teams, and Blazers' captain Odongo felt the referees on the night made life hard for his side.
Namuwongo Blazers fell 87-77 to the UCU Canons after overtime Friday night.
It was a largely one-sided affair that had the Canons in charge from tip-off and only became a contest midway through the fourth quarter when the Blazers staged a comeback from 16 points to force overtime.
The Canons took a four-point (37-33) lead into the half-time break and stretched that to six (54-48) going into the game's final quarter.
A 10-00 run to start the fourth frame gave the university side a comfortable 16-point lead, and the Blazers looked beaten.
But a fight back, led by Peter Cheng, got Stephen Nyeko's side back in the game as the two sides tied at 70 and needed overtime to be separated.
The Blazers' full-court press troubled a predominantly young and inexperienced Canons side and forced errors from which Blazers capitalised.
Only one side fought in overtime, and it was the Canons, dropping shots from everywhere on the floor to take the additional five minutes 17-07 and record their first win of the season.
Crap and rusty
Two technical fouls were called against both teams, and Blazers' captain Odongo felt the referees on the night made life hard for his side.
He had no kind word for the officials in his post-game interview.
Brian Ssebalamu, David Senfuma and Nagib Kintu were the referees on the night, while Peter Kirabo was the Commissioner.
"The refs were crap. The refs were crap. We all saw that," Odongo said.
"Somebody is making a call, another person is coming to give a T (technical), and they kept on warning our players time and again," he added.
"Stopping the game, warning our players, they just got us out of rhythm. Clear fouls; they are not giving them. They are not communicating. The refs were totally crap in this game.
"And I hope they actually get this message because they need to improve.
"Maybe we can say it's the start of the season. Everyone is rusty, players are rusty, maybe the refs are also rusty, but they need to take care of that."
Odong shot one-for-five from the field and made seven of his 10 points from the free throw line as the Blazers lost their first game of the season.
The new signing Peter Cheng got a double-double of 19 points and 13 rebounds for the Blazers, but more was needed for victory.
Geoffrey Soro, who fouled out early in overtime, got 17 points, 15 rebounds and seven assists, while Michael Makiadi recorded 10 points and 11 rebounds.
The Canons had Lwabaga Ibanda recording a game-high 22 points, while Brian Otim and Jerry Kayanga added 20 and 18, respectively.
One of the game's major talking points was when Cheng scored, and a foul was called.
The confusion was on whether the South Sudanese had been fouled while attempting to score, and that would have taken him to the charity line for an extra one-point attempt, but after lengthy deliberations, the officials only counted the basket and bizarrely handed the Blazers possession to inbound.
The Blazers will not have much time to focus on the past, though. KCCA Panthers await them on Sunday, and the complete focus must be on that.
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