Rwanda Energy Group (REG)’s star guards Cleveland Thomas Jr and Adonis Filer have spoken out on the tightly contested Rwanda Basketball League trophy that their team won on Sunday, September 18. REG beat the Patriots 84:74 in Game 5 of the best-of-the-five finals series, a development that means that they successfully defended their title and will represent the country in next year’s edition of the Basketball Africa League (BAL). During the highly contested finals, Thomas Jr and Filer played a big role in lifting their team to the top, as they made key contributions, in terms of scoring, rebounding as well as assisting their counterparts to score and more. The two guards jointly scored 152 points in the five games of the finals, registered 65 rebounds and a number of assists. With such, their partnership has been a formidable one and is clearly one of the reasons for their team’s success. Speaking to Times Sport after winning the title, Thomas Jr said: “I feel great. All praise and glory be to God. I am just happy we got it done. We fought really hard, I am just happy to be a champion.” He noted that it was significant because it will make the team go back to the BAL because they have “unfinished business” there. Commenting about how hard Game 5 was, he said: “It was a very tough match. They are really a great team, they play really well together and I am just glad for my guys that we kept fighting and got the win.” For Adonis Filer, he said he feels “blessed” to have won the title. “All I want to say is thank you God,” he said. Asked about whether the trophy makes up for the disappointment he experienced in in last year’s BAL where his team was eliminated at the quarterfinals while he was injured, he said: “No, not at all. We were just able to come back and hopefully when we go back to the BAL we can have better results.” Henry Mwinuka, REG’s Head Coach, in an interview lauded his team saying they play as if they have been together for a long time. I appreciate all the players who have shared this whole journey with us in the league. The effort they used to work together to achieve the results we wanted,” he said.
