Basketball in Africa

Sunday
Gisenyi 63-79 Espoir
Rusizi 79-78 IPRC- Kicukiro
KCB 51-59 APR
UR- Huye 47-73 UGB
Saturday
Men
UR- Huye 42-52 IPRC- Kicukiro
Women
RAPP 48-52 APR
Friday
KBC 66-78 CSK
ESPOIR BASKETBALL CLUB are the champions of the 2014 national basketball league. The Nyamirambo-based club won their third league title in a row with two matches left to the end of the season.
They went into Sunday’s game needing a win to make history, registering a 79-63 victory over the Rubavu-based Gisenyi BBC, thanks to Espoir captain Aristide Mugabe who hit a game high of 20 points for the champions.
The champions now need to win their remaining two matches – against Rusizi and CSK – to repeat another milestone of retaining the league title unbeaten, just as was the case during the last two seasons.
Head coach Jean Bahufite told Times Sport yesterday: “We are overwhelmed because this win was very important for us. Gisenyi are a good team, they kept pressure on us only that we were too good for them. We’re really humbled by retaining this title and are already looking forward for more success in the future.”
In the other matches played over the weekend, KBC lost 78-66 to CSK on Friday and APR 59-51 on Sunday.
IPRC-Kigali (Kicukiro) beat UR-Huye 52-42 on Saturday before losing to Rusizi 79-78 on Sunday while UR-Huye secured a 73-47 win over UGB.
In the women’s league, champions APR narrowly beat Rwanda Allied Peace for Progress (RAPP) 52-48.
Espoir lead the standings with 36 points in 18 matches, while APR are in second with 32 points in 19 matches. CSK are third-placed with 31 points from 17 matches while UGB and IPRC-Kigali are in fourth and fifth, respectively, with 29 points each.
In the women’s league, APR have 14 points, three ahead of Ubumwe and UR-Huye who are in second and third positions respectively. RAPP are in fourth with nine points while UR-College of Education lie bottom with only seven points.