The ManicaPost
Fungayi Munyoro Sports Correspondent
MERCENARIES player-cum-coach Innocent ‘Stolz’ Sithole, a legendary figure within the Mutare based side, says his charges will carry on with their play at the ongoing Basketball Africa League qualifying tournament in Johannesburg despite suffering a narrow defeat to University of Zambia on Wednesday.
Zimbabwe’s sole representatives at the Africanshowcase suffered an 80-74 defeat in their second outing. The Zimbabwe giants started their campaign with a 64-55 victory over Lions Club of Namibia on Tuesday.
Mercenaries will face Jozi Nuggets of South Africa tomorrow (Saturday) at 6pm. They will wrap up their campaign with Dolphins of Botswana on Sunday afternoon.
Stolz believes his charges have it in them to beat Jozi Nuggets when the two teams clash tomorrow Wembley Stadium.
Despite losing to University of Zambia Stolz remains upbeat.
“We have a good chance .We have a good opportunity. The guys played very well in our first encounter and we hope to continue with the same spirit. We hope we will give it our all and go past the group stages into the final 16. It can be achievable. We lost on Wednesday but we are not reading much into that. This is a different game altogether,” said Stolz.
The tournament officially started on Tuesday and will run up to Sunday. It has 32 teams vying for a seat at the African high table, which will see 12 teams making up the inaugural continental league.Teams have been divided into six groups, with the top two of each group advancing to the next round.
Mercenaries are in Group E together with Ferroviario Maputo (Mozambique), Jozi Nuggets from (South Africa), Zambia, Dolphins (Botswana) and Lions Club (Namibia).
