Rangers hunt JKL Dolphins

KIU Rangers will be competing in their first National Basketball League (NBL) women’s final this week.

This has come on the back of their 3-0 sweep of the JT Lady Jaguars in their best of five semi-final series, that concluded on Sunday, October 8 at the YMCA, Wandegeya. However, the Rangers have the unenviable task of making sure that they win their first-ever NBL championship ahead of a seasoned campaigner as JKL Dolphins.

The Dolphins did not only sweep the UCU Lady Canons 3-0, too, in the other women’s semifinal. But, the manner in which JKL lost the championship last year has not only fueled pain and anger. There is hunger, too. At the time, JKL boasted of an unprecedented 29-0 record. Then JKL lost game three for the series to stand at 2-1.

But like champions are, they made a statement of intent, and won to make it 3-1. Now, the series looked academic. No team in the history of Ugandan basketball had ever bounced back from such a deficit to win a playoff series. Back in 2010, Power basketball club led the Kyambogo Warriors 3-0 in the finals, only for the latter to rally and level matters.

But Power did enough to win game seven. Similarly, the same was expected of JKL, but UCU had other ideas, and set a new record, and won 4-3. It is an outcome that has haunted JKL since, as their star small-forward, Brenda Ekon put it: “It hurt the way we lost that final. We had to go back and have detailed conversations with one another and our coaches about what went wrong. As we watched the videos of those games, we realized how we did not focus well on the game.”

Many say it was complacency, although one is unlikely to get such an admission coming from the JKL fraternity. But one undeniable fact is that the pain from that experience did not only create anger, but an unwavering hunger to win by hook or crook this year. The body language of the JKL players has shown that.

Their full court press simply subdued UCU’s attempts to fight back recently. In fact, the Rangers, who lost both regular season games, through the likes of Ines Kanyamuneza, Ninete Uwineza, Dorcus Marambera, Mary Amaniyo, Sharon Kirabo and Perus Nyamwenge, need to have their best displays.

Meanwhile, the thought of City Oilers bagging a ninth successive men’s championship may be unbearable to many, but it is the reality looming. The Oilers, who dumped Our Saviour 3-0 take on KIU Titans, who despite winning 3-0, too against UCU Canons, were stretched.

Titans also lost twice to Oilers in the regular season, which should have a psychological dent on them. They largely have the same team that represented the Namuwongo Blazers and lost to Oilers 4-3 in the final last year.