Ulinzi Warriors fall to South Sudan's Cobra Sport in BAL Elite 16 opener

William Balozi-coached Ulinzi Warriors have their work cut out in unfamiliar territory against Mozambique's Ferroviario Beira on Thursday after going down 77-67 to South Sudan's Cobra Sport in their opening match. 

Heading to the encounter, Cobra had lost their opening match to the Mozambicans on Tuesday and were also on the back of a loss to Warriors in the first round qualifiers in Dar es Salaam. 

Coach Balozi had handed William Ochieng, Vincent Juma, David Ouma, Tiberious Menya and skipper Eric Mutoro with the starting berth and the soldiers quickly found themselves trailing 6-0 with 7.43 minutes to play. 

Cobra, on their part had made two crucial signings coming into the elite 16 bringing in Kenya Morans Centre player Tom 'Bush' Wamukota and Rwanda’s small forward Dieudonne Ndiziye who proved crucial in the side's first ever win in the BAL qualifiers. 

The South Sudanese went up 11-4 but Warriors battled their way up to level the score at 13 points with 2.42 minutes to play and went on to lead 13-17 at the end of the first quarter. 

Joseph Owino led the offense for Warriors in the second quarter, with the score tied at 26 points. Cobra assumed lead at 29-26 with a point and a conversion from the free throw line yo make it a three-point game. 

The referee called an unsportsman foul on Ouma, handing Cobra the chance to to go five points up. Despite dominance on rebounds, Warriors' shots did not drop and the South Sudanese side extended their advantage to eight points at 36-28. However, Mutoro and Menya knocked down twos for the match to head to the break with the Kenyans trailing by two baskets. 

On resumption, Cobra went on an fourteen-point scoring spree that proved the turning point for the match, the Kenyans coming close but unable to recover for a win. 

With the soldiers trailing 50-32 Mutoro and Ochieng bagged a trey each with the latter adding a basket on the paint to reduce the deficit to ten points. Antonio Bwire added a trey of his own with Motoro, who had been impressive in the first half knocking down another three to make it a four-point game. Cobra held on to lead 57-52 at the end of the third period. 

In the final period, the gap was again reduced to three points at 59-56 thanks to mid range jumpers from Menya and Owino but Cobra pulled away to lead by ten points at 66-56. The soldiers struggled to recover the they went on to lose by a similar margin.