City Oilers finish bottom of Basketball Africa League Nile Conference

City Oilers' guard Fayed Baale goes to the rim against Al Ahly /COURTESY PICTURE

BAL City Oilers finish bottom of Basketball Africa League Nile Conference

Ndyamuhaki J Emanzi 21:56 - 06.05.2023

City Oilers will now have to wait for another season to try and get past the regular season stage.

City Oilers have been permanent resident of bottom place in the Nile Conference of the Basketball Africa League and that has not changed after conclusion the regular season action.

The Ugandan champions lost 80-70 to Cape Town Tigers on Saturday to miss out on a ticket to the Basketball Africa League Playoffs in Kigali, Rwanda.

That defeat also confirmed Mandy Juruni’s charges as the worst team in the Nile Conference as the final standings have them rooted right at the bottom.

Having lot to SLAC, the other team that missed out on the playoffs, Oilers finished behind them with a similar 1-4 record but the Guineans had the better head-to-head.

City Oilers will now have to wait for another season to try and get past the regular season stage.

Petro de Luanda were the best team of the conference and will go to Kigali as the top seed, setting up a clash with Stade Malien, the team that finished fourth in the Sahara Conference.

Al Ahly defeated SLAC in their final game of the regular season on Saturday to end the tournament with a 4-1 record and in second place.

The 91-90 loss to Petro was the only flow in Al Ahly’s campaign.

Ferroviario da Beira and the Cape Town Tigers are the other teams to have booked playoffs tickets from the Nile Conference with 2-3 records.

Ferroviario might have lost to City Oilers in their last game on Friday but the Mozambican side had done enough before that, defeating SLAC and Cape Town in their earlier games.

The top four teams will now focus on the playoffs slated for May 21-28 in Kigali, Rwanda while Oilers and SLAC will have to get back to domestic business.