Uganda Gazelles focus on better finish at Afrobasket
The national women’s basketball team will be in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, to compete in the Fiba Women’s Afrobasket, that begins this Saturday, July 26 to Sunday, August 3.
Notably, The Gazelles, who are pitted in group ‘C’, begin their account on Sun- day, July 27 against Guinea, before facing the 2023 Afrobasket runners-up Senegal on Monday, July 28. Both games will be at 3pm, Ugandan time.
There is a lot of expectation in The Gazelles going into this year’s Afrobasket, and it is largely owed to the fact that in the last edition, two years ago in Kigali, Rwanda, The Gazelles finished seventh out of the 12 teams at the tournament.
But even with that in mind, many believe that The Gazelles only came short of finishing in the top four because of the injury that forward, Jane Asinde suffered in the quarter-final clash against Rwanda, when Uganda were clearly in control of the game. So, that begs the question: Can Uganda better their 2023 Afrobasket performance?
Gazelles coach Nick Natuhereza has been quite upbeat about the team’s prospects since they entered residential training in Egypt on July 11.
He said: “There is a lot we learnt from the last Afrobasket in Rwanda. First, the players have generated more experience. We have more point guards than we had last time, which was a major problem area, then. Ultimately, we must ap- ply ourselves with belief and the character to fight. Once we do that, we shall succeed.”
If there is that one time when The Gazelles have shown real character, it was earlier this year, when they went for the Fiba women’s Afrobasket qualifiers in Egypt. Despite losing to Egypt in the round-robin stage 62-65, Uganda went on to beat the same team in the final 74-63. Natuhereza felt that drawing on that kind of mindset while in Abidjan should put Uganda in good stead.
Yet, there appears to have been a bit of backsliding in the team since then. Just a week ago, The Gazelles played three friendly games. The first against Egypt ended in an 85-87 defeat, which was quickly followed by a 65-75 defeat at the hands of Rwanda.
Although The Gazelles made amends and defeated Cameroon 69-62 in their final warm-up game, the common denominator in their losses to Rwanda and Egypt was the fact that the team registered at least 30 turnovers in either game.
Each turn-over is a potential basket, which is equivalent to two points, or better still, a basket. Essentially, Uganda surrendered 60 points in each of those games. It would be difficult to win a game at the top level if a team made so many turnovers.
But KCCA Leopards coach Roger Sserunyigo believes in this team. He noted that the calibre of players summoned by Natuhereza are the best in the league. Besides, Sserunyigo is not worried about the mistakes that were made in the build-up games.
He said: “It is in such games that you iron out your shortcomings, so that when the real busi- ness begins, you are in top shape. I am confident that with the quality in the team, we will make the semi-finals.”
But UCU Lady Canons’ assistant coach, Emmanuel Kiguyi remains cautiously optimistic. In his view, The Gazelles are relatively a smaller side than most of the favourites. And because of that, there is a tendency of the bigger teams using their size to bully the smaller ones.
