As the regular national basketball league wrapped up over the weekend, there were mixed reactions from the top clubs. APR could not help rejoicing after becoming only the first club in the history of the sport to finish the regular season unbeaten after a convincing 88-43 win over Basketball United Generation (UGB). Kami Kabange took charge, grabbing a game high 20 points while Bienvenue Ngandu added 19 as the Indomitable Lions sealed a historical win. “We are happy and pround of the record but the task is still on. We want to win the league and we can only do that by winning the play-offs,” APR’s Kenyan coach Cliff Owuor reckoned. On the otherhand however, Espoir missed out on a play-off slot after a close 72-74 defeat against last year’s losing finalists CSK. Espoir needed to win the game to have any hopes after a mixed season. Rusizi also earned their play-off slot despite back to back defeats against National University of Rwanda (UNR) and CSK. The Western Province outfit suffered a shock 78-81 defeat against UNR before a much more convincing defeat (58-77) against CSK. Meanwhile, Marine capped up the regular season in convincing style after a 97-70 win over UNR. The victory means that the reigning champions together with APR, CSK and Rusizi are all through to the play-offs. Ahead of the play-offs, ladies played classification games at Amahoro Indoor Stadium. APR left Rusizi in tears following a massive 128-16 victory. Else where, KIE and UNR earned 49-41 and 65-42 victories over Ruhengeri’s ISAE. Ends
