Sunday, May 5 APR 82-86 Rivers Hoopers Rwanda’s APR tasted their first loss at Basketball Africa League (BAL) 2024, following Sunday’s 83-86 defeat at the hands of Nigeria's Rivers Hoopers at the Dakar Arena in Senegal. The Nigerian champions improved their win record to 2-0 after overcoming APR who had beaten Tunisia’s US Monastir 89-84 after overtime in the opening game of the conference. Point guard Will Perry put up a man-of-the-match performance, contributing team high 29 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists to the Hoopers’ victory at the expense of Mazen Trakh’s side which paid the price for a host of costly turnovers made during the game. After the game, APR captain William Robeyns said, “We allowed Will Perry to shoot far too many open shots, and this cost us because he is a smart player.” ALSO READ: APR seek to maintain winning streak ahead of Rivers Hoopers game It soon became evident that three-point shooting would be a factor in the game that no team led by more than 6 points. At the end of the opening quarter, APR, who eventually finished 6-for-31 from behind the arc, were 0-7 from long range. Robeyns says that the Hoopers won the game because they wanted it more. Reflecting on the Rwandan champions shortcomings, the APR skipper admitted that they will need to regroup and make some adjustments. “We didn’t play well defensively. We are going to watch a film, focus on defense and try to move forward,” he said. ALSO READ: Noel steals the show as APR win overtime thriller against US Monastir “We scored 82 points today. Offensively we are good, we just need to put more emphasis on our defense, ” he added. Obadiah Noel came up with yet another stellar performance, finishing with a game-high of 32 points, but APR paid the price for their careless perimeter defense. Adonis Filer had a performance that one would assume one would like to forget during which he shot 2-for-15 to finish with 6 points. APR coach Mazen Trakh sought answers from his bench, which outscored Rivers Hoopers’ 14-6, but shooting 22-for-32 from the charity stripe only made things worse for them. ALSO READ: BAL 2024: Who's who in APR roster? It was another good day for Rivers Hoopers, who had upset the hosts AS Douanes 24 hours earlier. APR will be back in action on Tuesday, May 7, against AS Douanes at 9pm Kigali-Time. The BAL 2023 runners-up will go into the game with a 1-1 record having beaten US Monastir 76-59 on Sunday.
