The Uganda U23 3×3 Gazelles participated at the FIBA U23 3×3 World Cup in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia and their performance produces different reactions from the different stake holders.

The team qualified after having won 4 of 6 stops at the Youth Nations League hosted in Kampala.

Ahead of the travels, 3 of the players who were part of the team during the qualifiers couldn’t make it but the biggest loss was Lydia Babirye.

The youngster Captained the team at the qualifiers, showed so much confidence and skill and she was named MVP.

Her replacement was another upcoming youngster, Mary Priscilla Nambogo, but in comparison to Babirye, she’s still behind in terms of experience, skills, and leadership, and her repping at the biggest stage was always going to be a difficult task.

Results

Uganda 10:18 Egypt

Uganda 6:19 Netherlands

Uganda 7:19 Chile

Uganda 8:21 France

The team did not win any game and scored above 10 points just once.

Players scores (total)

Akello Winnifred 4 points

Shillah Lamunu 4 points

Priscilla Nambogo 8 points

Becky Longom 15 points

Uganda scored a total of 31 points, the second lowest at the tournament and Becky Longom accounted for 48% of those.

Additionally, Uganda scored just 2 shots from behind the arc which brought a lot of concern.

Why this performance?

Well, After Uganda won the qualifiers, there was a lot of hope that they could cause some problems, but being the least-ranked country before the tournament, the odds were against us.

The talent levels on the global stage were so much higher when compared to Uganda’s and it was always going to be different for Uganda to register a win.

Shillah Lamunu and Priscilla Nambogo are both 19 years old and a lot is expected from them in future but in this particular tournament, they couldn’t reach the levels that the other guards were playing at.

Between the 2, there was just 1 2-point shot scored and that was made by Nambogo.

Becky Longom tried to get Uganda some baskets but it wasn’t enough given that her efficiency was also not as high.

Akello was also very inefficient and this meant that Uganda was going to struggle a lot.

During 2018 when Uganda qualified for the first U23 World Cup, Uganda managed to win 2 of the 4 games and finished 13th of 20 teams.

The wins came against Romania, 17-11, and 15-13 against Germany.

When one looks at the squad that Uganda had then, they all looked better than the team for 2023.

Uganda shall be waiting for 2025 for the next qualifiers and hopefully they can make it to the world cup once again.