Kampala — Uganda's under-18 girls' basketball team will arrive in Tunisia later today to participate in the African championships.

The trip was in serious doubt as the sport's governing body FUBA struggled to secure funds as late as Wednesday.

But after Wednesday's last ditch meeting with sports state minister Charles Bakkabulindi, federation president Ambrose Tashobya was given enough assurances to borrow the money that funded the trip yesterday of the initial batch of the team.

Of the 11 on the entourage, nine - including seven players, team coach, and a referee - made yesterday's trip. Another player and Tashobya, who is head of delegation, will join the rest in Tunisia.

Uganda's patchy pre-tournament buildup, which will see the postponement of what was supposed to be their opening game against Tunisia today, is ominous for the team's championship campaign.

Nevertheless, Tashobya is delighted that Uganda has managed to make the trip and avoid the penalty that would have resulted from failure to attend. He confessed that his team should not be expected to return victorious.

"Honestly we are merely going to participate but if we had failed to make it, we (all Ugandan basketball teams) would have been banned from FIBA-sanctioned events for two years and that would have been bad for the sport," Tashobya said.

Meanwhile, Joseph Ikong scored 26 points to lead Sadolin Power to an impressive 110-80 victory over Crane High in the MTN-FUBA men's division one league Wednesday night. Division two leaders Ndejje University Angels also thrashed the Biston Planets 116-57 in the other encounter.