Basketball in Africa

by Edmund Kagire
Kigali

Rwanda's Under 18 basketball team started off with a flying start in the ongoing Zone V championship qualifiers taking place in Kampala, seeing off their Uganda counterparts 100 to 83.

Rwanda, inspired by their captain Crispin Gishoma, were in inspiring from the word go, with the skipper scoring a series of 3 pointers before the Ugandan's settled into the Game.
Lionel Hakizimana caught the Ugandans on the break before passing the ball to Olivier Muhire for a slam dunk. Uganda though introduced Philip Luzzi and Keith Ashaba who quickly cut Rwanda's 10 point lead to 4 by the end of the 1st half.
Rwanda answered with quick fire shots in the 2nd quarter with Fiston Muhire, Ajuma Gatete and Emmanuel Tabara overwhelming the Ugandan defense restoring the 10 point lead.
The Ugandan's seemingly tired from the opening game against Burundi could not respond to the Rwandans who were playing their first game of the tournament.
Rwanda's Coach Viceslav praised the boys for their fighting spirit despite the referee's attempt to upset them by making biased decisions, which left Viceslav protesting on the touchline.

Rwanda's next game will be against Sudan who defeated Burundi earlier.
The winners of the five-day event will qualify for the African Junior Championships slated for October in Cairo, Egypt.