FUBA National Basketball League
Betway Power 69-73 UCU Canons
MTN Arena, Lugogo
Thursday, 21-11-2019
UCU Canons produced a magnificent 4th quarter as they eliminated Betway Power in the FUBA National Basketball League playoff semi-finals on Thursday night.
Trailing 40-47 going into the last 10 minutes, the Mukono based side upped their game, winning the 4th by scoring a massive 33 points while letting in 22 at the other end to win the contest 73-69.
Earlier, Power registered the first points of the game as Geoffrey Soro’s free-throw and Libe Makala’s jump shot saw them lead 3-0.
However, UCU went on an 11-0 run to lead 11-3 with 04:16 on the clock. The run was only ended by Makala who sunk another jump shot.
By the end of the first quarter, UCU were leading 16-15.
The second would however belong to Power who took it 09-06 to lead 24-22 at the long break.
Power looked on course to another finals’ appearance when they took the third 22-18 and improve their advantage to 7 going into the final 10 minutes.
However, UCU scored the first 9 points of the 4th to take a two-point lead (49-47) inside the first three minutes.
The lead would then change hands six times before UCU put the game to bed 73-69.
UCU had two players register double-doubles with Fadhili Chuma managing 19 points and 12 rebounds respectively while Titus Lual managed 16 and 12 respectively. David Deng was the other who stood out as he posted 14 points in the winning effort.
For Power, Paul Odong and Makala were unfortunate to end up on the losing side. Odong scored a game-high 24 points while Makala registered a double-double of 15 points and 11 rebounds.
The victory means that UCU won the best of five series 3-1 and will wait to see who they face in the finals.
The other semi-final has City Oilers lead Warriors 2-1. The two will face off in game two on Friday night in one of the two games lined up.
The FUBA NBL upcoming fixtures
-UCU Lady Canons vs KCCA Leopards @6:30pm (UCU leads 2-1)
-Warriors vs City Oilers @8:30pm (Oilers leads 2-1)
