Basketball in Africa

Former champions APR take on rivals and newly crowned national basketball regular season champions Espoir in Game Three on Saturday at Amahoro indoor stadium hoping to win and avoid a 3-0 whitewash in the best of five Playoffs final.
Espoir need to win only today's game to secure the Playoffs title after winning Game One 89-63 and Game Two 106-54 respectively last weekend.
Former APR point guard Kami Kabange led the still unbeaten Espoir with a combined 49 points from two games and was well supported by Aristide Mugabe, who had 35 points.
Former Circle Sportif de Kigali and Espoir forward Lionel Hakizimana was APR's top scorer with total tally of 54 points in both games.
The pressure will be on APR to win Game Three to force the series in Game Four and possibly Game Five if need be, and head coach Cliff Owour knows stakes are higher than ever before.
"We failed to defend well in the first two games, but we need to forget about the past and focus on Gama Three, which we need (desperately) need to win to stay in the race. For us Saturday's game is a must-win," the Kenyan trainer told Saturday Sport yesterday.
He added, "We have not done well against Espoir this season, they have been unstoppable throughout the season, nonetheless we want to fight and win Game Three."
As for his Espoir counterpart Jean Bahufite, only one game stands between his team and history as the Nyamirambo-based side seeks to become the first team to go the entire season unbeaten.
He said, "We have been excellent this season and I hope we can finish the job on Saturday, we have not (yet) won the title so we must be careful in Game Three because APR are capable of (doing) anything."