The City Oilers made their 11th trip to the NBL Finals after edging Sommet 79-70 in a decisive game 5 at YMCA.

Coming into the game, there was a lot of tension and excitement and a lot was at stake.

Although, at the end of the day, there was only going to be one winner.

A lot of things happened in this game but we shall pick it up from the fourth quarter.

This was probably the worst we’ve seen both teams play over a span of 10 minutes but it played right into the City Oilers hands.

They led the game 71-59 to start the quarter a it was all about game management for them.

Chad Bowie drained a triple to start the quarter and take the lead to 15 points.

However, Peter Cheng got a bucket shortly after but what happened next was, for luck of a better word, ‘rubbish’

For the next about 5 minutes, there was no basketball being played.

There was a total of 8 turnovers a d the City Oilers were trying to eat up as much time as possible.

On the other hand, Sommet was looking for a basket and they panicked.

They made very many bad decisions, jerking up rushed shot after shot and even the drives were forced.

Neither team scored in that time and there was a lot of frustration seen on the faces of the fans.

This was not what they paid to watch.

Nonetheless, everything that was going on played in the Oilers favor and they managed to seal the game, 79-70.

What changed the game?

With 6:48 left in the game, City Oilers led the game 54-53 but Sommet was hit with a major blow.

Kasereka Tembo got an injury and had to be taken off.

At the time, he had been their primary handler, was an offensive threat (with the shot) and was creating for his teammates.

He was going to be replaced by Andrew Ssendawula who hasn’t had his good days in this series.

Just after coming on, Andrew made a turnover and the Oilers stole ball and scored an easy basket.

On the next possession, the ball went into Nyembo’s hands and he also made a turnover.

This also resulted into points for the Oilers.

The thing we noticed was that Sommet’s offense wasn’t as fluid as it was with Tembo on the floor.

Before long, Andrew was taken off and Opira Markey was introduced.

However, the problem was not solved.

There was no ball handler on the team who was a threat like Tembo was and this made the City Oilers defensive work easy.

In the 6 minutes that Tembo was off in that quarter, Sommet made 6 turnovers and this helped the Oilers a lot.

They gained a 12-point lead to end the quarter and put themselves in a position of strength.

Turnovers

This was a big factor in the Oilers’ victory on Friday.

They conceded just 6 points off their 13 turnovers.

For Sommet, they registered 18 turnovers and City Oilers punished them with 24 points from turnovers.

Free throws

Sommet hadn’t been good on thr free throw line throughout the series and it came back to bite them.

Coming into game 5, they had missed 32 of their 82 attempts.

In the first half of game 5, they missed 11 of 14 and their situation did not change much in the second half.

They finished the game with 15 missed of 28 attempts while City Oilers scored 11 of their 16 attempts.

The differences between the 2 teams were minor (mostly mistakes) but they had a huge impact on how the game ended.

Strong start

Coming into the game, Sommet had won game 4 by 3 points but their defense did a lot of work.

In this one, the City Oilers made some adjustments on offense and everything clicked in the first quarter.

Moses Maker was getting a lot of touches and he rewarded in his teammates.

Everything he touched turned to gold and Sommet had no answer for him.

Big Mo scored 13 points in the first quarter with 6 field goals made.

His presence in the paint also highly affected Sommet as he managed to pick 5 offensive rebounds which resulted in second chance points.

Sommet also made a lot of turnovers and these resulted into fast break opportunities for the City Oilers.

To end the first quarter, City Oilers had scored 31 points to Sommet’s 18.

In the second quarter, the Oilers led by as many as 17 points but Sommet fought back.

Opira Markey came in and scored some crucial baskets. Mark Ngobi also did the same.

John Focus Teko helped to stop Maker on defense and with evey passing possession, Sommet slowed the City Oilers down.

They limited them to just 14 points in the second quarter and by half time, Oilers led 45-38.

In that third quarter, all was going well for them as they had managed to cut the deficit to just 1 point until that Tembo injury.

Everything went down spiraling after that.

Player Stats

City Oilers

Mer Maker 23 pts, 14 reb

Kurt Curry 20 pts, 5 reb

Chad Bowie 19 pts, 4 reb, 5 ast, 4 stl

Sommet

Peter Cheng 14 pts, 15 reb

Nyembo Fataki 13 pts, 12 reb

Mark Ngobi 12 pts, 4 reb

Sommet will face the UCU Canons in  a the third place playoff on Wednesday 8th October.

The City Oilers will face the Namuwongo Blazers in a repeat of the 2022 NBL Finals.

Game One is expected to tip-off on 7th October at Lugogo.