Al Ahly survive City Oilers' scare to stay perfect

City Oilers’ fight back on Saturday night came a little too late to try and cause what would have been the biggest upset in the 2023 Nile Conference so far.

The Oilers trailed Al Ahly by 33 at some point in the game, but in a turn of events they cut the gap to just two points with 2.6 seconds remaining.

Oilers coach Mandy Juruni called a timeout; set an offensive play for his last chance to win the game, but Al Ahly’s defense stood firm to prevail 72-70.

“We can’t take anybody lightly,” said Nuni Omot who led the Egyptian champions with 17 points.

“We were up 30, but they came up. That’s what happens when we don’t take teams serious; We got to take everybody serious and try to finish when we have the chance” Omot noted.

None better than Germaine Roebuck Jr. epitomised the Oilers’ resilience.

For most of the 37 minutes he spent on the floor, Roebuck Jr. did a bit of everything for the Oilers.

From attacking the basket with ferocity, defending aggressively to voicing his leadership, Roebuck Jr. gave Al Ahly some hard time.

By the final buzzer he finished with a game-high of 28 points and 11 rebounds for his first BAL double-double.

“When we play as a group we can win any game. If we played like that in the first half we probably would have won this game,” Roebuck Jr. observed.

He continued: “It took us a minute to figure out how to play together as a game.”

After his 6-point performance against Petro de Luanda, Roebuck Jr. explained that he needed to play aggressive against Al Ahly. “My team needed me. Even when we were 30, we kept playing hard.”

During the last 2.6 seconds play that could have changed the course of the game, Roebuck Jr. revealed that the intention was “To go to the glass and try to get a foul. Unfortunately it didn’t go that way.”

Nevertheless Roebuck Jr. insists that “the next games we’ll be better. We are a very good team, one of the best teams in this conference.”

Although Al Ahly improved their Nile Conference record to 2-0, Omot said: “We just did a really bad job at the end of executing; we were shooting the ball pretty fast.”

Asked if Al Ahly underestimated City Oliers, the South Sudanese forward replied: “I wouldn’t say we underestimated them, but we haven’t played as hard as we should. If we had played consistent the whole game we could have been smoother to end to the game.”

City Oilers (0-2) and Al Ahly (2-0) return to action on Tuesday, May 2 to face SLAC and Cape Town Tigers respectively.