GROUP B FIXTURES
Friday: Angola v Uganda
Saturday: CAR v Uganda
Sunday: Morocco v Uganda
KAMPALA. The Silverbacks’ desire is to reach the quarterfinal stage of the 2017 Afrobasket Championship having finished 15th at the previous edition of the 16-team tournament two years ago in Tunisia.
To achieve that feat however they have to win two of their three games in the four-team group at the championship that starts today in Senegal and Tunisia. Angola, 11-time champions of this tournament are expected to pose the biggest threat and will be the country’s first opponents on Friday evening.
Despite the obvious difference in pedigree, guard is relishing the challenge ahead of him more so against the African powerhouse that has also been to the Olympics Fiba World Cup on five and seven times respectively. “I am looking forward to it,” the guard said at the team’s training camp in Egypt where the tea, spent close to two weeks.
Mandy Juruni who has now been relegated to assistant coaching role with the addition of Texas Legends coach George Galanopoulos also wants the team to maintain a positive attitude. “We are going to play with a mindset to win,” he stressed. He will expect a similar approach in the subsequent games with Central African Republic and Morocco lined up on Saturday and Sunday respectively.
“We should be having a lot of confidence and belief that those teams are beatable and are not so far away from us if we have the right preparations and players who are going to help and compete at that level,” remarked Juruni. Betway Power captain Joseph Ikong is part of the eight domestic league players with fellow guard Syrus Kiviiri as the new entrant from the previous edition.
Having narrowly lost 60-56 to Central African Republic in 2015, a win against Saturday’s opponents seems more achievable. The Silverbacks appear more balanced going into this year’s tournament with A'darius Pegues expected to greatly improve the front court department in addition to Samuel Kalwanyi.
The latter who was expected to arrive in Dakar last evening is sure to have benefited from two years at Wayland Baptist University in the US. The former replaces Brandon Ssebirumbi who not called up this time for the Silverbacks who must win two games to reach their quarterfinal target.
In the Group Phase, Dakar will host Group B and D, while teams drawn in groups A and C will compete in Tunis. The top two teams from each group will advance to Tunis, which will also host the Final Phase (Quarter-Finals, Semi-Finals and Finals) from September 14-16.
Group A: Nigeria, DR Congo, Mali Cote d'Ivoire
Group B: Angola, Central African Republic, Morocco, Uganda
Group C: Tunisia, Guinea, Rwanda, Cameroon
Group D: Senegal, Mozambique, Egypt, South Africa