Amidst all the tension and excitement, the City Oilers claimed game one of the quarter-finals after defeating the JT Jaguars 77-62.

This was a game of 2 halves, and the Oilers showed who they are made of in the second half.

They scored 44 points in the second half to Jaguars 25 and this helped them see out a ‘easy’ victory.

The game started off hot, with both teams going at each other.

You could sense the tension from the players from the tip off and both teams wanted to take early control of this game.

Chad Bowie opened the scoring with a triple while Kurt Curry added another shortly.

However, Ian Lubwama was also cooking for the Jaguars.

On their first possessions, he made a spin on Chad, who fouled him.

Then shortly after, he split the defense with a drive to the basket for the easy finish.

A few seconds later, he hit a triple from the right hand corner to make it a 1-point game.

The Oilers then made a 10-1 run to take a 10-point lead with about 3:24 left.

In that run, Oilers forced a turnover and Kurt Curry set up Chad Bowie for the dunk with a pass off the back board.

This sent the crowd in derilium but the Jaguars stabilized shortly.

Peter Sifuma went to work scoring the final 8 points for the Jaguars in the first quarter to end it 22-18.

Sifuma seemed unstoppable in the paint and the Oilers never had a solution for him.

Aaron Eboyu went to work second quarter and his was mainly to disrupt the Oilers.

He infused energy into the game but most importantly played mind games on the Oilers new signings.

Aaron got T’d early in Q 2 but he also managed to get Kurt Curry get an unsporstmanlike foul.

Curry had a lot of complaints to the referees but ge had a point, the physicality in this game was through the roof but it was fair on either side.

The Jaguars played very good 1v1 defense, forcing the Oilers into tough shots and they managed to capitalize.

The defending champions scored just 2 field goals in the entire second quarter.

The biggest difference for the Jaguars at the end of the quarter was Abraham Dut.

He became the primary ball handler, freeing up space for others and also scoring for them huge buckets.

He scored 6 points in the final 3 minutes and he was surely a game changer for the Kira side.

The Jaguars outscored the Oilers 19-11 in the second quarter to take the lead, 37-33, at the halftime break.

Turnovers became the problem for the Jaguars in the third quarter and they lost the game here.

In the first 5 minutes of the quarter, they played good defense but had no output offensively.

The same applied to the Oilers but it soon changed.

In the final 5 minutes of the half, the Jaguars made 8 turnovers and a total of 12 in the entire quarter.

The Oilers scored 8 points from turnovers but also made a 10-0 run to gain a comfortable lead.

At the end of the quarter, they led the game 54-44 and were in form control of the game.

In the fourth, the Jaguars were playing catch-up but they couldn’t get there.

The Oilers kept making shots, while making some defensive stops and this steered them to victory.

Despite the Jaguars scoring some baskets late in the game, it was already late and the game ended 77-62.

Player Stats

City Oilers

Chad Bowie 16 pts, 5 reb, 4 ast, 4 stl

Mer Maker 13 pts, 8 reb

Fayed Baale 8 pts, 7 ast, 3 stl

JT Jaguars

Peter Sifuma 13 pts, 12 reb

Ian Lubwama 13 pts, 5 reb, 5 ast

This was the first victory of the City Oilers against the JT Jaguars this season.

The 2 shall meet for game 2 on Thursday 11th at Lugogo. 

The Jaguars must win in order to extend their season while the Oilers will be looking to close out the series and advance to the semifinals.