Cape Town on two-game winning streak with one game let in the Nile

Cape Town Tigers stepped on the court on Friday night knowing that beating Cobra Sports was a must-do task to avoid future calculations later in the Nile Conference.

The Tigers outscored Cobra 83-79 to improve their record to 2-2 with one game left.

But things didn’t start the way Cape Tigers coach Relton Booysen expected as Cobra Sports took an early 7-0 lead, forcing Booysen to call a timeout.

Former NBA player Jamel Artis converted a free-throw to give Cape Town a 17-16 lead with three minutes left in the opening quarter, and the South African champions closed the first ten minutes with in front 22-18.

Even though Cobra Sports guard Padiet Wang tied the game at 33-all in the  second quarter, the Tigers headed to the locker room with a 35-34 lead.

Billy Preston had a slow started to game, but he stepped up when the Tigers needed him to in the second quarter to finish the first half with 13 points, and become the only player in double digits.

Cape Town led by as many as nine points, but Cobra rallied to take theIR first lead (48-47) since the opening quarter thanks to a layup from Nyang Wek midway through the third.

The South Sudan champions dominated the battle in the painted area, outscoring Cape Town 48-38, but converting only 51 percent (14/27) of their free-throw attempts proved costly to them.  

“It was tough. I went to the line in the last couple of minutes on the clock, missing free-throws is a  bumper. We’re going to work on that this weekend and come back strong for the next game,” said Nyang Wek who helped Cobra Sports with 17 points and 4 rebounds.

Wek added: “We weren’t running our fast-break the way were supposed to. We just needed to pass the ball more. We just didn’t do what coach told us to do.”

Mayan Kiir did a bit of everything for Cobra Sports, but his 22 points and 9 rebounds weren’t good enough to avoid Cobra Sports dropping to 1-3 in the Nile Conference.

“We got in foul trouble early in the game, and our rotation was a little bit up and down, but the two teams were evenly matched,” said Cobra Sports head coach Manyang Berberi.

Billy Preston came up with a man-of-the-game performance finishing with 23 points, 14 rebounds, and 4 assists.

Evans Ganapamo contributed 19 points, Jamel Artis added 16 points, and Pieter Prinsloo was 3-for-6 from behind the arc to finish with 14 points for Cape Town.

“Coach staff keep believing in me. They understand what I am capable of. They keep telling me to believe in my shot that is going to go in, and today it showed up a little bit. But it’s just work. If you stick to what you know. Today the shots were falling in,” said Prinsloo.  Coach Booysen explained the team’s mindset going to the game. “It’s a very important win. Our coaching staff talked before the match. We said we don’t want to come down to calculations. I think we are one win away from Kigali. We just need to stay humble.”