{"id":75446,"date":"2025-06-17T11:21:46","date_gmt":"2025-06-17T09:21:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=75446"},"modified":"2025-06-17T11:21:46","modified_gmt":"2025-06-17T09:21:46","slug":"jozi-stars-and-soweto-basketball-academy-are-soweto-uprising-champs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=75446","title":{"rendered":"Jozi Stars and Soweto Basketball Academy are Soweto Uprising champs"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_75476\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-75476\" style=\"width: 400px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-75476 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/ssschoolsplus.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Jozi-Stars-400x310.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"310\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-75476\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">2025 Soweto Basketball Uprising Tournament Champions, Jozi Stars. Photo. Soweto Basketball Academy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>After four days of competitive basketball, the <strong>Jozi Stars<\/strong> were crowned the boys&#8217; champions of the <strong>Soweto Basketball Uprising Tournament<\/strong>, on Monday, while the <strong>Soweto Basketball Academy<\/strong> claimed the girls&#8217; title.<\/p>\n<p>The Jozi Stars maintained an unbeaten streak throughout the tournament, putting together a clean record in their pool matches before advancing through the playoffs to the final, after a 68-48 win over Wolves in the semi-finals.<\/p>\n<p>The final, against the Soweto Basketball Academy, was a captivating contest, which went down to the wire, with the Jozi Stars capturing a nail-biting 53-51 win to lay claim to the silverware.<\/p>\n<p>Played on <strong>Youth Day<\/strong>, in Soweto, the finals honoured the country&#8217;s youth who played a significant role in overturning apartheid, with the Soweto Uprising, in 1976, being one of the pivotal moments in that battle.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_75477\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-75477\" style=\"width: 400px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-75477\" src=\"https:\/\/ssschoolsplus.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/SBA-Girls-Team-400x267.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"267\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-75477\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Soweto Basketball Academy girls&#8217; team celebrating moments after defeating Alexandra Basketball Club in the final of the Soweto Uprising Tournament. Photo. Soweto Basketball Academy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>It was a tough end to the tournament for the hosts, the Soweto Basketball Academy, who had enjoyed an impressive run, going undefeated in their pool games, before winning through to the final.<\/p>\n<p>In the semifinals, they took down last year&#8217;s champions, the <strong>Montana Vikings<\/strong>, recording a convincing 67-53 win in a rematch of the 2024 title game.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately for the home team, for the second year in succession, they had to settle for second.<\/p>\n<p>While the Soweto Basketball Academy boys&#8217; team was stopped at the final hurdle, there was much to celebrate for the girls&#8217; team, which emphatically defeated <strong>Alexandra Basketball Club<\/strong> 59-38 to go back-to-back as the champions of the Soweto Uprising Tournament.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_75478\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-75478\" style=\"width: 400px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-75478\" src=\"https:\/\/ssschoolsplus.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/SBA-Photo-400x420.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"420\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-75478\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">From left to right, George Makena and Charles Saunders. Moments after being honoured with Lifetime Achievement Awards by the Soweto Basketball Academy. Photo. Soweto Basketball Academy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Before they met for the title, the hosts handed Wolves a 58-26 loss in the semi-finals, while the Alexandra Basketball Club cruised to a 62-34 win over <strong>Rand Tutorial<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>After the finals had concluded, the Soweto Basketball Academy honoured <strong>Charles Saunders<\/strong> and <strong>George Makena<\/strong>, presenting them with <strong>Lifetime Achievement Awards<\/strong>, which recognised their exceptional contributions to South African basketball.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Their legacy has paved the way for many. We honour and appreciate their dedication and contributions,&#8221; the Soweto Basketball Academy said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Results\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Boys Semifinals<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Soweto Basketball Academy 67-53 Montana Vikings<br \/>\nJozi Stars Stars 68-48 Wolves<\/p>\n<p><strong>Girls Semifinals\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Soweto Basketball Academy 58-26 Wolves<br \/>\nAlexandra Basketball Club 64-32 Rand Tutorial<\/p>\n<p><strong>Girls Final<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Soweto Basketball Academy 59-38 Alexandra Basketball Club<\/p>\n<p><strong>Boys Final\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Jozi Stars 53-51 Soweto Basketball Academy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After four days of competitive basketball, the Jozi Stars were crowned the boys&#8217; champions of the Soweto Basketball Uprising Tournament, on Monday, while the Soweto Basketball Academy claimed the girls&#8217; title. The Jozi Stars maintained an unbeaten streak throughout the tournament, putting together a clean record in their pool matches before advancing through the playoffs [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":75476,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=75446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75446\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/75476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=75446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=75446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=75446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}