- Saturday, September 9
- Angola vs. Uganda – 12:00am (EAT)
Uganda national basketball team – Silverbacks – will get their 2017 Afrobasket campaign underway tonight against 11-time winners Angola.
For a team looking to make the quarter final on their second asking, it gets no tougher than starting against continental heavy weights.
Head coach Mandy Juruni gives due credit to Angola but insist his charges will compete.
“It’s tough because we are the lowest ranked team in our group. Having Angola and Morocco we know those are power house teams in Africa.
“(But) I believe with good man power and good preparations and the experience we got from last time, we should be able to play better than we did last time. We will compete with Angola.”
Shooting guard Robinson Opong will be playing for Silverbacks at his first championship and will be key for the team as well as A’Darius Pegues who was part of the qualifiers and seasoned players in skipper Stephen Omony and Starnley Ociiti whose experience will go a long way in pushing the team.
Ben Komakech will be playing at his first continental showpiece and will share minutes with Jimmy Enabu at the point.
Ugandans have a huge task of containing continental house hold names in Carlos Morais, Amando Costa, Olimpio Cipriano and Eduardo Mingas
Meanwhile, the Central Africa Republic play Morocco in the other group game.