Vusumuzi DubeInnocent Kurira
ZIMBABWEAN basketball champions JBC are out of the Basketball Africa League (BAL) 2024 East Division Elite 16 qualifiers after they suffered a third straight defeat at South Africa’s Ellis Park in Johannesburg today.
Their latest defeat in group E came at the hands of Club Omnisport de La Police Nationale (COSPN) of Madagascar who won yesterday’s encounter 78-73.
The loss followed their opening 75-55 defeat to Mozambique champions Ferroviário da Beira and an 84-71 loss against Ugandan champions City Oilers.
JBC coach Addison Chiware told FIBA that he was picking signs of improvement although results did not come his way.
“This match was relatively close. Like I promised from the first day, my boys are going to continue improving. We took care of the ball much better, but we couldn’t defend better. We defended well, but they were just a better team. It could have been closer than five points. I thought that it was going to go to a one or two-point game.
“Today we played much better. Having lost our two starters due to injury it meant that our rotation was not as good as we wanted it to be. We went deeper into the situation as we normally do,” said Chiware.
Tafadzwa Tela came up with a game-high 23 points in the game against COSPN.
He gave his thoughts on the mood in camp.
“There is a level of disappointment because all the guys felt that we could have been in this game. It came down to a few plays. I’m grateful because we got better every game. This is a great learning experience for us and we’ll be back,” said Tela.
Making their debut at this level, the Harare-based club, JBC, bolstered their squad with the inclusion of Senegalese centre Abdoulaye Ndoye and Nigerian, Chris Brown as they sought to become the first team from Zimbabwe to qualify for the BAL finals.
They also added former Cape Town Tigers’ shooting guard Curtis Hollis in their bid to make history.
-@innocentskizoe
Bongani Ndlovu