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Oilers shot 34-for-67 from the field to ease to a rare opening-day victory and send a message to the challengers.
If the season opener between City Oilers and KIU Titans was supposed to send any message, it emphasized the greatness of the eight-time champions and reminded everyone how tough it will be to dethrone them.
The Oilers demolished KIU in every facet of the game to win comfortably by 28 points, much to the disappointment of the sizable crowd that welcomed the return of the National Basketball League.
Fayed Baale, Titus Lual and Michael Ngut all walked straight into Oilers' starting lineup, probably a clear message of what to get used to.
Baale and Lual are clearly, the future and the chemistry between the two, who played together for UCU Canons until last season, produced some of the game's best moments.
The two sides struggled for offence early on and took Edgar Munaba's jump shot after three minutes to open the scoring.
But when the shots started falling for the defending champions, they quickly created daylight between the two sides.
Lual fed off Baale to lay up and give Oilers a 21-04 lead with 1.37 left on the clock in the first frame, and KIU's 4-0 run to end the quarter only reduced the deficit to 13 points (21-08).
Julius Lutwama's side were not at the races and found themselves down 19 (39-20) going into the halftime break.
After three-quarters of the game, the lead kept ballooning and was up to 25 points (63-38).
Mandy Juruni recognized there was no contest and gave playing time to two other additions to the team, primarily expected to be on the fringes for the bigger part of the season.
The returning Henry Mulira and youngster Allawi Ssenkubuge got a feel of the action.
Oilers shot 34-for-67 from the field to ease to a rare opening-day victory and send a message to the challengers.
Lual marked his Oilers debut with a game-high 20 points and completed his double-double by adding 14 rebounds.
Baale had 11 points, six rebounds and eight assists, while Ngut added 15 points of his own to announce his arrival in the Ugandan league.
The consolation for the Titans will be that they cannot play worse than they did Sunday night.
Stanley Mugerwa came off the bench to register a team-high 18 points and, alongside Saidi Amisi (11), were the only Titans to score in double figures.
Innocent Ochera had a debut to forget, shooting an abysmal one-for-11 from the field to record a mere two points in the end.
The Kansanga outfit shot 23-for-71 from the field in one of the worst displays on opening night.
It might be only the season's opening game, but the Titans will have some soul-searching to do.
Collins Kasujja and Brian Opiyo struggled to bring up the ball and direct traffic, and there was simply not enough offence to trouble the defending champions.
And with Oilers not having to engage second gear in the opener, it looks like a matter of when rather than if they will win a ninth straight championship.
National Basketball League
Sunday results
Women
Magic Stormers 64-56 Miracle Eaglets
Lady Canons 51-67 JKL
Men
Power 83-81 RezLife
Ndejje 71-69 KCCA
KIU Titans 51-79 City Oilers
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