Netball Super League: NIC ‘Cries’ Again as Weyonje Subjects The Defending Champions to a Second Defeat
Saturday results:
Police Netball Club 52-40 Posta Netball Club
UCU Netball Club 44-39 UPDF Netball Club
Ugx Luweero Netball Club 34-56 Prisons Netball Club
NIC Netball Club 36-40 Makindye Weyonje Netball Club
Not good for the defending champions National Insurance Corporation netball club this season, the side has registered another loss of the season only before the end of first round.
Makindye Weyonje Netball Club reached a huge milestone since they joined Super League in 2018/19 season, they managed to join the few clubs that have ever humbled the ‘dictator’ of recent in Uganda Netball.
The Assiimwe Jesse coached side managed to subject NIC to her second loss of the season with a 40-36 deserved victory on Saturday at Kamwokya Community Sports Center.
The Makindye based side had a slow start of the game, they were trailing in three of the four quarters of the encounter, they had to come from four goals down to narrow the gap in first quarter and it ended 9-8 in favor of NIC.
At half time, Weyonje was trailing by two goals, 20-18 at the break, then in the last two quarters, Weyonje gained the momentum, they won both of them 10-09 and 12-07 in third and fourth quarter respectively.
NIC had the control of the game at least for the first three quarters, however, the changes Mugisha Ali made in the third and last quarter could have costed him a lot because they didn’t deliver to his expectation, Racheal Nanyonga, Sarah Nakiyunga, Adunia Florence and Moureen Nankya did come in but their performance especially that of Sarah and Racheal Nanyonga was below average to the extent that none of them spent at least 15 minutes on the court before they were substituted again.
“I have a small squad, some are injured so I have to jungle with the few I have to see that I get results from them.” Ali Mugisha laments. “We lost the game because of our mistakes and the errors by the umpire, again their were turnovers like it was against KCCA but this time it came in the third quarter.
However, any team lose only that we had the dominance for the years. The two losses in first round is not good and like any coach, you can be worried but I am not, I hope next round we shall rectify.” Says Mugisha.
NIC first got a loss against KCCA this season, they have so far played 10 games with one remaining to end the first round and that comes against Prisons Netball Club another tough side in the league.
The player of the match Faridah Kadondi , the Weyonje Netball Club goal keeper could not hide her excitement after securing two important points against giants.
“A win against the defending champions (NIC) is a great achievement for my team, it gives us the zeal to win all our upcoming games and even to perform well in the second round to see that we achieve our goals.” Says Faridah Kadondi.
“I hope I performed well according to the comments I heard from the fans, so I thank my fellow players for the coordination we had, we have been training hard to achieve this, and I thank God that I fulfilled what I promised to my teammates that I am going to steal the balls.”
Kadondi Faridah had been an outstanding player for Weyonje, made over eight steals though some were not successfully converted bye her team mates.
Despite a loss, NIC still on top of the table with 16 points those it’s two games above the second an third placed Prisons and KCCA respectively who also have 16 points each.
Makindye Weyonje remained in 5th position with 12 points and also remained with one game to end the first round.
In other results, Prisons extended her unbeaten run to eight games after a 56-34 win against Ugx Luweero, UCU Netball Club beat UPDF 44-39 while Police humbled Posta by 52-40.
The league will return on Wednesday at the same ground.