Delivering rousing speeches is one thing, but sporting excellence quite another, as U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama found out once again Tuesday, this time on a basketball court in North Carolina.

It was the second time that Obama used sports in a bid to boost his campaign to become the first African-American president of the country.

The Illinois senator basketed the ball just once during a few minutes of practice with the Tar Heels team from the University of North Carolina.

"These guys are a lot better than me," Obama told reporters while struggling to keep pace with the elite university basketball players, who had among them Tyler Hansbrough, national player of the year.

Team coach Roy Williams, however, still berated his players for not guarding Obama enough, saying they were "leaving the (potential) next president of the United States wide open."

Campaign officers told reporters that their candidate did make a three-pointer shot after media were escorted out of the court.

Obama had earlier tried a round of bowling in an attempt to woo blue-collar voters before the April 22 Pennsylvania primary, but ended up with a score of only 37 points out of a possible full score of 300.

With only one week left before the Indiana primary, both Obama and Democratic presidential nomination rival Hillary Clinton, are revving up campaigning in the state where neither has a clear advantage.

(Xinhua News Agency April 30, 2008)