City Oilers Edge Jaguars to Reach Semifinals

Thursday, September 11
*Rezlife Saints 61-76 Nam Blazers (0-2)
*City Oilers 67-65 JT Jaguars (2-0)

City Oilers have booked their place in the National Basketball League (NBL) semifinals after completing a 2-0 sweep over JT Jaguars in the best-of-three quarterfinal series.

The defending champions sealed the deal with a narrow 67-65 victory in game two on Thursday night at Lugogo.

Just as in game one, the Oilers were forced to rally from behind, trailing 31-37 at halftime before grinding out the result in the second half. It was another labored showing, but the eight-time champions did just enough to advance.

Despite a poor shooting night — just 5-of-27 from three-point range — the Oilers won the rebounding battle 52-50 and squeezed 14 points off the bench to edge through.

Kurt Curry Wegscheider led the charge with 20 points, while Moses Maker and Fayed Bbale added 14 and 11 points respectively. Chad Bowie, who fouled out, finished with 8 points, and Titus Lual contributed 5 points alongside 11 rebounds.

For the Jaguars, Ian Lubwama scored 14 points and George Agassi added 10 in a spirited effort, but the side badly missed the services of Fadhil Chuma.

It marks the end of the road for Jaguars, who had impressively finished second in the regular season standings. The Oilers, meanwhile, march on to the semifinals, where they will face Sommet in a best-of-five series.