Friday, February 21 Rwanda 73-96 Senegal The national basketball team had a rough start in the third window of the AfroBasket 2025 qualifiers, suffering a 73-96 defeat to Senegal in a Group C opener in Rabat, Morocco. Rwanda had a promising first quarter where it capitalised on good shooting and Senegal’s turnovers to tie the score at 13-13. Back in the second quarter, Axel Mpoyo’s early three-pointer briefly gave Rwanda a 16-13 lead, but Jean-Jacques Boissy responded with a triple to level the score. With key players coming off the bench, Senegal became sharper both offensively and defensively. They outscored Rwanda significantly in the second quarter, extending the lead to 18 points by halftime, with Ousmane Ndiaye’s layup making it 48-30 just before the break. Boissy, a point guard who plays club basketball for Rwanda Energy Group (REG), was instrumental in Senegal’s dominance, combining with Babacar Sane for 36 points, as the west African giants secured a 96-73 victory. The win took Senegal to 4-0 record in Group C, ensuring their qualification for the AfroBasket 2025 tournament. Boissy led the game with 19 points, while Sane contributed 17 points. After the game, the national basketball team head coach Cheikh Sarr lauded Senegal as a tough team. “They have a great personality for three-point shooting. We did a good job in the first quarter, but when they made the substitutions, they got inside the paint... they put 40 points in the paint. We struggled on defending that,” he said.
