City Oilers have foot in semifinal after win over JBC

City Oilers have one foot in the semifinal of the East Division Road to BAL tournament after picking their second group win. The Ugandan side beat JBC of Zimbabwe 84-71 on Wednesday afternoon in a closely contested thrilling encounter whose winning margin is deceptive. Having lost their opening game to Beira yesterday, JBC came into the game as a must-win and played it as such taking the opening quarter 22-20. Veteran combo guard Parrish Petty (185-PG-1988, college: UTRGV) took his turn to lead the Oilers, scoring 11 of the team’s first-quarter points and had 16 at the long break with the game tied at 45. Oilers led by as many as 10 points (65-55) with under a minute and a half to play in the third quarter but a foul shot and a couple of unanswered 3-pointers pulled JBC to within 3 points (62-65) going into the fourth quarter. JBC had a 6-4 run to start the fourth quarter and took a lead midway through the period forcing Mandy Juruni to call a timeout. On return, the Oilers missed two shots but once Robinson Opong connected from the top of the mountain for the lead with just over 3 minutes to play, the Uganda champions never looked back as Petty took charge and closed out the game. Petty finished with a game-high 29 points to go with 7 rebounds. Dane Miller and Germaine Roebuck also scored in double figures for Oilers as Titus Odeke (208-PF-1998) cleaned the glass with a game-high 13 rebounds, 9 defensive. Saul Phiri (193-G-1997, college: La Salle) and Tafadzwa Tela led JBC’s losing effort with 16 points apiece. Tashinga Chiimba (12 points), Nyang Wek (198-F-1996) (10 points & 13 rebounds) and Dyvonne Pfachi (G/F-1995) (10) also scored in double digits. Oilers will battle Beira on Thursday at 6:00 p.m.
Courtesy of: kawowo.com