Espoir, APR meet in Playoffs final

The league champions Espoir take on former champions APR in the best of five Playoffs final with Game scheduled for Saturday at Amahoro Indoor Stadium court.

Saturday, March 09, 2013
Lionel Hakizimana (right) will lead the youthful APR side against a vastly experienced and in-form Espoir led by Kami Kabange (left) in the battle for the Playoff title.

Game OneTodayEspoir     vs     APRThird placeKBC     vs     CSKWomen semi finalsAPR     vs     NURUbumwe     vs     RAPPThe league champions Espoir take on former champions APR in the best of five Playoffs final with Game scheduled for Saturday at Amahoro Indoor Stadium court.The first team to win three games will be crowned the 2013 champions. Unbeaten Espoir will start the series as hot favourites, but APR too have enough firepower in their armory to cause an upset.The newly crowned champions Espoir qualified for the final after beating last year’s winners KBC 2-0 in the best of three semifinal playoffs. They won Game One 79-60 and Game Two 87-61 APR overcame Circle Sportif de Kigali 2-1. CSK won Game One 60-59 but the army side came back to win Games Two and Three 60-56 and APR 59-52 respectively.Ahead of today’s Games One, Espoir coach Jean Bahufite said, "Our objective is to add the Playoff trophy to the regular season title.”"APR is good team and they have always been, but we are confident about our chances of beating, the earlier we finished off the series the better,” he told Saturday Sport.APR coach, Cliff Owour, who has won four league titles, said his youthful team can cause an upset against a team which in unbeaten in 18 games since the start of the season.Meanwhile, the women league enters the semifinal stage this weekend. APR won all their seven regular season games and the playoff semis as favourites.Ubumwe finished in second place with 12 points, Rwanda Allied for Peace and Progress, third with 10 points, National University of Rwanda, fourth position with 8 points, while Circle Sportif de Kigali finished bottom with 4 points.