Basketball in Africa

The national basketball league championship second round resumes Friday evening when reigning champions Espoir basketball club host Cercle Sportif de Kigali (CSK) at Amahoro Indoor Stadium, starting at 7pm.
The league had been halted since July 21 due to the national basketball team’s preparations and engagement in the just ended 27th Fiba Afrobasket Championships in Abidjan, Ivory Coast where Rwanda finished tenth out of 16 countries. Espoir provided majority of the players for the national team.
Angola won the title after beating Egypt in the final—the duo were joined by Senegal as Africa’s three representatives at next year’s Fiba World Championships in Spain.
Back to the league, at half way stage, Jean Bahufite’s Espoir, unbeaten on the local scene since the beginning of last season, lead second-placed Rusizi BBC by just a point.
However, Bahufite, who is also the national team assistant coach, has urged his players not to take foot off the pedal as he seeks to go another season unbeaten.
“Our objective remains the same, winning the league and if we can achieve it with an unbeaten record, that would be wonderful. But for now the focus is on the next game against CSK on Friday,” Bahufite told Times Sport recently.
Also this weekend, 30-Plus will take on United Generation Basketball (UGB) on Saturday, starting at 10am and former champions APR face-off the on-form Rusizi basketball club, starting at 12pm. Both games will be played at Amahoro Indoor Stadium.

In women’s category, Rwanda Allied Peace for Progress (RAPP) will be hosting defending champions APR and the two will clash again on Sunday, both games at Amahoro indoor stadium, beginning at 10am.

In the men’s league, 2012 Zone V champions, Espoir lead the table with 12 points one point ahead of Rusizi, KBC are third with 10 points, while CSK, APR and UGB are all tied on 8 points and 30-Plus are bottom with 6 points.