Basketball: Kantore completes shock return to APR women
Monday, January 02, 2023
Photos: Igihe

Point guard Sandra Kantore has re-joined APR Women Basketball Club on a one-year deal.

The experienced player returns to the army side a year after she left the club for Rwanda Energy Group (REG) with whom she won last season’s Rwanda basketball league title.

Kantore’s return was confirmed by the club on their official social media platforms.

She will immediately join the rest of APR’s squad when they begin training sessions Monday, January 2, in preparations for the forthcoming Rwanda basketball league that will open January 13.

The club players have been on holidays since they returned to the country fresh from the just-concluded FIBA Africa Champions Cup Women held in Maputo in Mozambique in December where they finished eighth in the tournament won by Egypt’s Sporting Alexandria.

APR have dominated the Rwanda national league for years, bagging the top prize between 2005 and 2019 before an emerging Rwanda Energy Group (REG) came to the scene and eventually n ended their domestic dominance by winning the title during the last two editions.

Playing career

Since she joined APR in 2013, Kantore helped the club with three league titles, three playoff titles, three Gisembe Memorial tournaments and four Heroes’ Day tournament titles.

Except 2016, Kantore and APR have been regular participants in the FIBA-Africa Zone V Club Championships.

Her impressive performance at the club attracted interests from various regional clubs like United States International University (Kenya) as well as Uganda’s UCU but APR turned down both offers insisting that they were not willing to sell their key player until REG signed her in 2019.

Kantore was recognized as the best female point guard in the country in 2014, the last time local basketball governing body FERWABA awarded best players per position.