Our Savior gift Nkumba victory late on: Division One

The drama unfolded late in the fourth quarter, but Nkumba were 67-58 winners in Overtime.

January 25, 2025

3–4 minutes

FUBA Division 1, Nkumba Lady Marines, Our Savior Banyabo, playoffs

Everyone had thought that Our Savior had done enough to win game 2 and tie the series, but with their generosity, they handed Nkumba the victory who received it with open arms.

Nkumba Lady Marines won the game 67:48 in overtime but the drama that unfolded in clutch time was peak cinema.

With about 3 minutes left in the fourth quarter, Banyabo led the game by 54:49 and all seemed to be going well until it wasn’t.

Olivia Atima made a turnover from which Nkumba made a fast break and 2 possessions later, Banyabo made another turnover and Privas Kayeny hit a big 3 to tie the game.

However, the big drama happened later on in the final minute of the game.

Banyabo led the game by 1 after Patricia Namugambe scored both free throws but on the next attack by Nkumba, they missed and all Banyabo had to do was run the clock.

They did exactly that but never scored on the possession and Nkumba got the rebound.

In a rush, Nkumba made a turnover and at this point, it was about 20 seconds remaining and the only thing Banyabo had to do was run the clock till the end but they couldn’t.

Phiona Apio made the turnover and fouled Mishelle, who now had a chance to give Nkumba the lead with less than 10 seconds to go.

Mishelle scored the first but missed the second and the game went into overtime.

The Lady Marines completely dominated the dominated winning it 11-2 and securing a 67-58 victory.

Talking points

The inability not to punish mistakes must be giving Coach Angella sleepless nights.

Nkumba made a lot of mistakes and Our Savior had a lot of opportunities to score but their continual miss of layups has cost them heavily.

This did not start in this game, but it has been the phenomenon from the quarter-finals against Makerere, the semifinals against Angels, and now in the finals.

Banyabo players need to calm down and make the easy baskets because that will build their confidence when it comes to the making the harder ones.

Composure is another aspect that was lacking in this game, more so later on for Banyabo.

Nkumba was beaten and they were on the ropes but they kept fighting and the recklessness of Our Savior gave them an opening.

In clutch time, it was as though there was no leader on the court. A commanding voice was lacking, and that is how they made unnecessary errors for which they were punished, and the result was a loss.

Banyabo needs to know who to trust and listen to because just having that and executing would have been enough to see out the game.

Just like I talked about her in the previous article, Privas Kayeny is the key and Our Savior needs to find a solution as soon as possible.

Despite not playing in the first quarter, she finished with 20+ rebounds and 8 blocks but most importantly, she scored a big 3 that tied the game late in the game.

However, she has multiple weaknesses in her game and one of them is making turnovers.

When she’s under pressure, she tends to make wrong decisions and her execution is mostly off.

She finished with 7 turnovers and these were mostly on bad passes.

Banyabo needs to find a way to pressure her and force her to make mistakes. This way, the coach could rethink his tactics, and that might be a problem for Banyabo.