Afrobasket Qualifiers: Silverbacks Confident Ahead Of Tip-off

Afrobasket Qualifiers (Second Window) @Monastir, Tunisia
Uganda’s Fixtures
Thursday, Feb 18th
Uganda vs Egypt
Saturday, Feb 20th
Morocco vs Uganda
Sunday, Feb 21st
Cape Verde vs Uganda

With the second window of the Afrobasket Qualifiers 2021 set to tip-off today, Thursday 18th till Sunday 21st February in Monastir, Tunisia, Silverbacks (Uganda men’s national basketball team) need at least one win to come good.

In the first window of the qualifier held in Egypt last year, Silverbacks who are in Group E with Egypt, Morocco and Cape Verde picked two wins and lost once, finishing second.

Uganda will play their first game of the campaign on Thursday against Egypt before taking on Morocco and Cape Verde on Saturday and Sunday respectively after a Friday rest.

Uganda lost to Egypt (96-77) in the opening match of the previous window. They later emerged 94-90 winners against Morocco before ending the tournament with a hard-fought 101-98 triumph against Cape Verde.

With the Egypt clash undoubtedly Uganda’s biggest hurdle, the Silverbacks are upbeat ahead of the final bend of the qualifiers.

“We shall take each game as it comes. The main target is to qualify for the championship,” Silverbacks head coach George Galanopolous noted ahead of tip-off.

Silverbacks team that comprises of eight home-based players and five foreign-based players camped in Monastir for about two weeks before tip-off and have been having drills and could possibly be in great shape.

“In every single day, every practice, every drill, every film session we were getting better. We got better as a group, we got better individually and they (players) are very receptive to our principles, our teachings and they’re communicating with each other at a high level like they always have,” Galanopoulos added.

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“We got a great group of guys because of the type of the people they’re. They’re very great team mates too,” Galanopolous said.

The Monastir showpiece will be the final window of the qualifiers and Silverbacks will need to finish among the top three in their group inorder to book a slot in the championship which will be held later this year in Kigali, Rwanda.