Basketball in Africa

RWANDA Men’s basketball team moved five places, from 67th to 62nd, in the latest Fiba Continental Championships ranking released on Tuesday. With 6.6 points, Rwanda is ranked 62nd in the world, 12th in Africa and 2nd in Zone V, behind Egypt. Uganda is ranked 86th and Kenya is a place below in 87th position in the world while in Africa, Uganda which is ranked 25th still beats Kenya which is in the 26th position.
The women team dropped two places to 63rd with four points while USA, Australia and Russia top the world ranking.
In Africa’s women ranking, Rwanda is ranked 11th. Mali, Angola and Senegal are ranked first, second and third respectively.
USA, Spain and Argentina make the top three best ranked men’s teams in the World, while Angola is the best ranked African country in 15th position followed by Nigeria and Tunisia in 18th and 23rd positions respectively.
The Rwanda Basketball Federation, Ferwaba chairman Desire Mugwiza said yesterday: “We are happy with the improvements. This shows that we did well at both club and national team levels last year, and also in terms of giving a chance to local players.”
The men’s team current ranking is attributed to last year’s performance at the Fiba Afro-basket Championship held in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire where the country finished tenth.
Following a 54-76 loss to Tunisia in the 9th/10th position playoff, Rwanda went two places up the grid having finished in 12th position at the 2011 edition in Antananarivo, Madagascar.
The Zone V representatives are yet to put up a better performance than they did at the 2009 edition of the biennial event where Rwanda finished in ninth position in Libya.

Contact email: bonnie.mugabe[at]newtimes.co.rw