As the curtains fell on the 2023 edition of the Rwanda Basketball League (RBL), teams and individual players recorded some interesting statistics that are worth noting. ALSO READ: PHOTOS: Basketball: APR clinch first championship in 14 years Times Sport presents to you some important numbers that shaped the just-concluded 2023 season. 14: Champions APR won their first championship in 14 years. Friday night’s silverware was also the army side’s 14th league trophy overall. The team won the league in 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009 and 2023. 2557: Champions APR finished the season as the highest scoring team in the league with 2557 points. Having made major trades going into the new season, the army side had a number of good scorers on the roster including the likes of deft guard Jean Jacques Nshobozwabyosenumukiza, power forward Axel Mpoyo, American guard Demarcus Holland, and Rwandan guard Ntore Habimana. ALSO READ: Nshobozwa, Trakh lead 2023 basketball league individual awards The quartet put up great numbers in terms of scoring that drove the team to the title. Among other teams that scored many points, Rwanda Energy Group (REG) netted 2,521 points, Espoir scored 2,030 while Patriots registered 2,022 points. 507: Little known Olivier Turatsinze, a point guard who plies his trade with Espoir, was the top scorer of the league with 507 points. The 22-year-old is surely one of the revelations of this season, having outscored some of the household names in the league like Nshobozwa and Adonis Filer. 300: Congolese center Pitchou Manga was the king of rebounds this season with 300 rebounds. The big man, who plays for REG, is that player whose weight is felt in the paint, both defensively and offensively. He did a great job despite the fact that his team lost the championship to APR. 59: Frank Kamndoh, a Chadian power forward who plays for United Generation Basketball (UGB), registered the highest number of blocks with 59. He also made 269 rebounds, and was a key player for his team which finished in eighth place. 7-0: APR went seven games unbeaten in this year’s playoffs. In fact, the team did not lose any match in the playoffs, having defeated the Patriots 3-0 in the best of five semi-finals, before going on to beat REG 4-0 in the finals. 20: A total of 20 foreign players featured in the league during the 2023 season. Newcomers Orion BBC had the highest number of foreign players with four, while the Patriots, REG and APR followed with three each. Kigali Titans had three, UGB had two, Espoir had two, and IPRC Huye had one. Star players for example US-Georgian point guard Michael Dixon, Lebanese-South Sudanese center Ater Majok, and American forward Jermaine Roebuck Jr are among top foreign players who graced the league this season, especially during the playoffs.
