City Oilers’ second game at the Basketball Africa League came to the final play as Al Ahly edged the Ugandan champions 72-70 on Saturday night.
Oilers nearly pulled off a heist after chipping away at a 33-point deficit and had a chance to win the game as theycontrolled the final possession with 2.6 seconds to play.
Al Ahly, favourites coming into the game, played as such leading the opening quarter 20-14 and 40-27 at the long break.
After the longbreak, Oilers went through a drought in the third quarter, scoring just a point in over six minutes as the hosts opened a 33-point lead (61-28).
Fayed Bbale connected from 3-point range with 3:40 to play in the third quarter and from that point to the end of the game, City Oilers outscored Al Ahly 41-11.
Trailing by 25 points at the start of the fourth quarter, City Oilers – led by Germain Roebuck Jr – slowly but surelystarted to chip away at the deficit.
Turning Point
Down by 23 points (47-70) with 6 minutes to play, Titus Lual connected from beyond the arc sparking a 23-2 run for Oilers.
With a 2 second difference between the game clock and shot clock, Al Ahly’s Nuni Omot was trapped by Falando Jones and Germaine Roebuck forcing the South Sudan forward to cough up the ball.
As Roebuck advanced with the ball, the clock was not reset and horn went off. However, after a referee review, the Oilers had 2 seconds to make a shot. Mandy Juruni called for a time out to draw the final play for their charges.
Roebuck was a second late with the inbound after Falando Jones created separation with his defender (Michael Thompson) to receive the pass. The wing received the pass under pressure, took a couple of dribbles drawing a double team with Moamen Tarek joining Thompson before passing to Titus Lual who was late with his shot as the buzzer sounded before taking it.
Roebuck finished with a game-high 28 points to go with 11 rebounds, Jones and Justice Jr. contributed 15 and 11 points respectively.
Omot scored team high 17 points for Al Ahly, Omar Oraby added 10 points and as many rebounds.
