WomenAPR 49-47 The Hoops Men 30-Plus 51-80 Rusizi

Saturday UGB 89-58 CSK Espoir 86-62 Rusizi

Friday IPRC-Kigali 55-75 REGPatriots 109- 31 30-Plus

Defending champions APR Women Basketball Club started their season with a win after beating The Hoop 49-47 in the national league opener played on Sunday at Amahoro Indoor Stadium.

APR started well and took the first quarter 14-11 but The Hoops recovered to win the second and third quarters 10-9 and 16-14 respectively. However, coach Charles Mbazumutima’s APR side upped their game and claimed the fourth quarter 12-10, to wrap up a narrow win.

"It was a tight game but we managed to shake them off and win our opening game. The championship will be tough because team wants to win the title but we are ready to defend it,” Mbazumutima said after the game.

The second game will be played next weekend with APR taking on archrivals Ubumwe. Five teams are taking part in this year’s women championship. APR leads the table with two points and The Hoops have one point.

Elsewhere in the men’s category, Rusizi moved to the third position after seeing off 30-Plus 80-51 in a game played on Sunday at Amahoro Indoor Stadium.

Meanwhile, after losing the first three games, United Generation Basketball (UGB) finally got their first win of the season downing fellow strugglers Cercle Sportif de Kigali (CSK) 89-58 on Saturday.

Former champions and table leaders Espoir beat Rusizi 86-62 to maintain the top position. Under their new head coach Maxime Mwiseneza; Espoir have won four and lost one against Patriots.

However, the game of the weekend pitted Rwanda Energy Group (REG) against IPRC-Kigali, which Jean Bahufite’s new league entrants won 75-55.

After the game, Bahufite said, "IPRC-Kigali are such a tricky side. They’re a good team, still young and have lots of energy and I am glad we defeated them. We won today because of experience otherwise they were physically better.”

It was the first defeat for IPRC-Kigali this season that has three wins and dropped to fifth position, while defending champions Patriots moved to second position after hammering 30-Plus 109-31.

Espoir (4:1) lead the table with nine points, one ahead of Patriots (4:0) and third-placed Rusizi (2:4) while REG (3:1) and APR (3:0) are fourth and fifth respectively with seven points.

editorial@newtimes.co.rw