Cape Town Tigers, Cobra Sports Face Survival Tests in Nile Conference

Two teams taking to the floor on Wednesday have their backs against the wall in the race for a playoff spot in May in Kigali.

Cobra Sport (0-2) and Cape Town Tigers (0-2) are yet to taste victory in the six-team Nile Conference with three games left.

In Wednesday’s first game, South Sudan champions Cobra Sports take on Espoir Fukash (0-1). Later in the day, Cape Town Tigers face Cameroon’s FAP (1-0).

These are two must-win games for Cobra Sports and Cape Town, who signalled some improvement in their latest games against Petro de Luanda and Zamalek, respectively, but one thing they can’t contemplate is being careless with the ball and lack focus.

ESPOIR FUKASH v COBRA SPORTS

Cobra Sports opened their Nile Conference with losses to Petro de Luanda and Zamalek while Espoir Fukash fell short in their first game against FAP.

In the build-up to the clash against Espoir Fukash, Cobra Sports forward Mayang Kiir stressed the need of improving ball handing as a way to give them a chance in the Nile Conference, and although he admitted that they are running out of time, he confidently affirmed: “I still believe we can take these wins,” he said to the bal.nba.com

Kiir explained how they can overcome such challenge: “We need to be able to guard ball screens and rotate on defense. Our defense rotation has been extremely poor. I feel like communication is extremely poor, but I still give credit to my team. We are still new, we don’t really know each other. We just recently met each other. It’s been three weeks since we met each other. We are just learning each other as we go along.

Kiir’s teammate Padiet Wang echoed the team’s concerns: “Turnovers? We have to fix that immediately. We had 27 [turnovers against Petro de Luanda] as a team, that’s one main area that we have to fix. If we fix that, we will be good in the next three games,” Wang said..

He continued: “We have to forget about this game and focus on our next game. We need to fix our mistakes. After a game like this, people are usually down. I just try to keep the spirits up. We can’t carry this type of mood to the next game.”

Unlike Cobra Sports, Espoir Fukash forward Rolly Fula sounded confident.

In the aftermath of Espoir Fukash’s 77-60 defeat to FAP, Fula said: “we have a few days off, and this should allow us to make adjustments. This is a tough tournament, but we can do better, for sure.”

Fula is the go-to man for the Congolese champions, but Bobo Kasaba can also take a leading role, especially on the offensive end.

Fukash just need a more productive bench to try and win their first game in the Nile.

FAP v CAPE TOWN TIGERS

Playing FAP, a combative and aggressive team that has returned to the BAL for the second straight time, is probably Cape Town Tigers’ biggest challenge in the tournament so far.

If BAL debutant Cape Town win, they can boost their BAL aspirations, but if they lose, they surely will be in dreadful position.

Taking to the floor 24 hours after an exhausting game against Zamalek isn’t necessarily what Cape Town would want, but the positive for the Tigers is the addition of Billy Preston and Jamel Artis, a duo who sat out their first game against Petro, and combined 37 points on Tuesday night.

FAP head coach Francois Enyegue exhales confident.

The man who has been promoted to the head coach role after serving as an assistant to Lazare Adie Ngono, keeps reiterating that his team’s object is “to do better than last season, and winning as many Nile Conference games as possible.”