Basketball in Africa

APR Men’s basketball club recently signed five new players in a bid to build a strong squad to challenge archrivals and reigning champions Espoir in the forthcoming  season which kicks off next weekend.The former champions, who last won the national championship title in 2010, finished fourth out of seven last season, behind Espoir, first runners-up Kigali basketball club (KBC) and Rusizi.

Among the new signings for coach Cliff Owuor’s team, include three youngsters fresh from secondary schools namely; Emmanuel Iyakaremye and Nsengiyumva both from ETEM Gisenyi and Gaetan Rutabingwa from Saint Aloys Rwamagana.The other two are; Marc Rusharaza from Rusizi and Pascal Niyonkuru from KBC. Niyonkuru rejoins the military club after a year and half since crossing to KBC.

“We want to build competitive team that can win and the league title,” former Kenyan international, Owuor said on Friday.

The 2014 national basketball championships (Men’s and Women’s) is set to start on February 22. Espoir and APR are defending champions in the men and women categories respectively.