The Uganda U21 women and men’s teams finished second and third respectively at the recently concluded FIBA 3×3 Youth nations league in Monastir, Tunisia. The performance was okay given the circumstances but there is no doubt that the teams would have done slightly better.

Women

The ladies finished second in the conference standings. They won stop one but Egypt won all the remaining five. In that first stop, Uganda started strong and defeated Algeria in the final. However, stop 2 was bad as Uganda finished fourth.

In the third and fourth stop, Uganda made it to the finals but couldn’t overcome the Egyptians. The Egyptians once again defeated them in the group games of stop 5 condemning them to a fourth place finish. In their final stop, Uganda returned to the final but once again, the Egyptians were a menace. This was the final chance for revenge but Uganda lost 21-15. Uganda led the game 6-4 but Egypt made a 10-0 and ultimately won the game.

Men

Uganda men finished in 3rd place but before the final stop, they had a chance to win the conference.  In stop 1, Uganda finished in 4th place after a bad outing against Algeria. However, in stop 2, they managed to make it to the final. They were unable to win the stop after Algeria once again defeated them.

Uganda made it to the finals in stops three and four but fell to hosts, Tunisia on both occasions. Stop 5 was the ultimate opportunity for Uganda to close the gap at the top but they fell to Benin in their final group game and they missed out on qualifying for the final.  

Coming into stop 6, Uganda needed to win the stop and hope that Algeria finish fourth or lower. However, in their first game, Algeria defeated them and their World Cup dreams ended. Uganda finished last in that stop and dropped to 3rd in the overall standings.

Top Performers.

Edrine Ekau was the top performer for Uganda with a total of 77 points scored in 5 stops. Mathew Kisakye and Brighton Galiwango scored 38 and 37 respectively. Victor Makmot and Omara Emmanuel each played in 4 stops and they scored 30 and 16 points respectively. Ethan Shiima played in the final stop alone and he scored 5 points.

For the ladies, Bushira namayanja wasthe star performer as she scored 78 points. Zoe Atek and Sarah Namale each scored 45 points while Mpoza Abigail and Mia Alaba Belinda scored 26 and 14 points respectively.

Contributions to the Olympics

Given that the team did not train ahead of the tournament. It is safe to say that the fight they put up was commendable. However, Uganda scored very few points and that affected their ranking points. Egypt has been the biggest beneficiary of this tournament and they have gotten a big advantage over the other countries.

At the moment, one can say that the race for the Olympics qualification is between Egypt and Uganda. Uganda has to make sure that they perform so much better than Egypt at the FIBA 3×3 Africa Cup so as to regain their advantage.