Saturday

Group D South Sudan Vs Mali 5pm Rwanda Vs Nigeria 8pm

It will be no easy battle for hosts Rwanda as they square-off with D'Tigers of Nigeria on Saturday, November 28 in the second game of the ongoing African Basketball Championship (Afrobasket) qualifiers at the Kigali Arena.

The game that will get underway at 8pm Central African Time is a very important one for Rwanda's hopes in the tournament as they lost their first game 64-70 at the hands of Mali on Thursday. 

On the other hand, Nigeria goes into the tie in a more comfortable position after a successful start where they beat South Sudan 76-56 in a match that as well took place on Thursday.

Speaking about the match, Rwanda's captain, Olivier Shyaka told Times Sport that they are working on correcting a couple of things that they might not have done well against Mali.

For example, he said their teamwork against the West Africans was not satisfactory,

"We did not work together as a team against Mali on Thursday. Towards the end of the game, our players started concentrating more on individual performances, and that might have affected us on the night. We are working on correcting that," he said.

 Concerning Nigerian opponents, he hinted at the threat they pose and promised to put in a lot of effort to get a positive result.

"We know the kind of opponent we are facing. We’ll approach the game as if our lives depend on it,” he said.

 "This match against Nigeria will be hard, and we are going to focus on attacking. We are confident that we will win this match,” he noted.