After more than 50 days without competitive Basketball, Nkumba Lady Marines returned to action against Amazon Rhinos for game one in the Semi-Finals on Saturday 11th at Abja Parks.

Despite the game being tough, the Nkumba one seed managed to get the job done and put one foot into the 2025 NBL.

The Lady Marines led 11-9 after the first quarter but Amazon Rhinos turned up the heat in the second and took charge of the game

Nkumba scored just 9 points to the Rhinos’ 15 in the second quarter and at halftime, Amazon led the game 24-20.

The misery for Nkumba continued as Amazon Rhinos made an 11-2 run in the first 5 minutes of the third quarter to take a 13-point lead (the highest in the game).

Nkumba got relief in the final 5 minutes of the quarter as Amazon started making errors defensively.

Nkumba scored 8 points from turnovers and also converted 10 of 11 free throws in that time.

In the first half of the fourth quarter, both teams went neck and neck and to show how tough it was, they were a total 5 lead changes.

However, when Nkumba Lady Marines steadied their ship, they never looked back and won the game 58-52.

Talking points

Amazon Rhinos missed 10 of 14 free throws in the fourth quarter and this affected them immensely.

Amazon scored just 9/23 Free throws in the whole game while Amazon had 22/41, which is also not high but much better.

Amazon Rhinos was also not taking care of the basketball well as they had 47 turnovers and were punished with 33 points from turnovers for Nkumba compared to their 10.

Nkumba Lady Marines

Nyakake Pearl 12 pts, 3 reb, 2 stl

Linda Mishelle 15 pts, 4 reb

Penlop Amiya 8 pts, 7 reb, 2 ast, 6 stl

Amazon Rhinos

Nassali Margaret 18 pts, 6 reb, 2 ast, 3 stl

Basemera Jackie 16 pts, 10 reb, 1 ast

Gertrude Ajidiru 5 pts, 14 reb, 4 ast, 2 stl

The 2 sides meet for Game 2 at the Lugogo Indoor Arena on Sunday 12th and the game shall tip-off at 13:00.