The City Oilers dream to play in the 2025 Basketball Africa League (BAL) was shattered after they lost to the hosts, Nairobi City Thunder, 72-62 on Monday 2nd December at Kasarani Indoor Arena.

Following their overtime 78-75 loss to Urunani in the final group game, this meant that the 10-time Ugandan Champions would have to go through Thunder and that is not a match that they desired.

The Thunder, who had been flying with a perfect record in the group stage were very and with the home crowd behind them, they were by far the clear favorites in this game.

Nairobi City Thunder led the game 18-11 after the first quarter but it was mainly due to their efficiency in scoring.

They had 8/17, 47% FG, 2/5, 40% 3P while Oilers had 4/20, 25% FG and 0/5, 3P on the first quarter.

The Oilers scored 4/11 from 3-point range in the second quarter but had just one made field goal in the paint of Thunder in that time.

Thunder made it difficult for City Oilers to penetrate and despite conceding a couple of shots from range, they were very much still in control of the game and at halftime, they led 34-26.

At the start of the third quarter, the Oilers made a 6-0 run to make it a 2-point game but Thunder responded with a 7-0 run and after that, City Oilers also had an 8-0 run and the game was within 2 points with 5:23 left in the quarter.

After that, the City Oilers offense went on holiday. They scored just 1 field goal in the remainder of the quarter while Thunder scored a couple of points from turnovers and Garang Diing hit the buzzer to make it a 9-point game into the fourth quarter.

With the second attempt in the fourth quarter, Ater Majok hit a huge 3-pointer to give Nairobi City Thunder a 12-point lead, the highest in the game and from their onwards, they never looked back.

Rogers Dauna came off the bench and tried to breathe some life into the City Oilers offense, but things weren’t going their way.

Falando Jones made 3 back-to-back triples for City Oilers and after Rogers Dauna made a huge bucket, it was a 4-point game with 2:05 left.

The short spell of hope was shunned away after Muhwezi was called for an unsportsmanlike foul with 1:51 left and Thunder carried through and won the game 72-62.

With this loss, City Oilers will not be heading to the 2025 Basketball Africa League (BAL) having represented in 2023 and 2024.

Players Stats

City Oilers

Petty Parrish 23 pts, 7 reb, 1 ast, 2 stl

Falando Jones 15 pts, 7 reb, 3 ast, 3 stl

Israel Otobo 12 pts, 11 reb, 2 ast, 1 stl

Nairobi City Thunder

Uche Iroegbu 16 pts, 5 reb, 6 ast, 4 stl, 2 blk

Ater Majok 17 pts, 10 reb, 2 blk, 1 stl

Tylor Ongwae 12 pts, 5 reb, 1 ast

Garang Diing Akol 11 pts, 5 reb, 2 stl

City Oilers will face Urunani, who were defeated in by Cape Verde’s Kriol Star, in the third place playoff on Tuesday at 6:00pm.