Rwanda U-16 men’s basketball team chances of storming the Afrobasket quarter-finals ended yesterday after losing to Nigeria 72-68. 

Victory against Nigeria was all Rwanda needed to book a slot to the last eight of the 4th U-16 Fiba Africa Basketball Championship in Bamako, Mali.

Rwanda started well but in the fourth quarter the West Africans regained control.

Nigeria won the first quarter 16-10 but Rwanda bounced to grab second and third quarters 22-12 and 23-22 respectively before Nigeria stepped up to snatch the fourth quarter 22-13 to finish fourth in Pool A and qualify for the round of last eight.

Debutants Rwanda were drawn in Pool A alongside Egypt, Algeria, Equatorial Guinea, Nigeria and hosts Mali but they only managed to win one game, 83-52 against Equatorial Guinea on Saturday.

Rwanda had previously lost 75-40 to Mali on Thursday, 95-36 to Egypt on Friday and 66-44 against Algeria on Monday. Egypt finished top of the pool, Mali, Algeria and Nigeria finished second, third and fourth respectively while Guinea finished bottom.

As a result, Rwanda still have to play classification games for 9th to 12th positions. By press time, they were yet to find out who they would meet in the first playoff game on Thursday.

Holders Angola and two-time champions Egypt are favourites for the title at the 4th edition of the biannual youth championship. Angola beat Egypt 75-66 to win the 2013 tournament, while the later had won the first two editions in 2009 and 2011.

editorial@newtimes.co.rw