Today Espoir vs KBCAPR vs CSKSundayEspoir vs KBCAPR vs CSKEspoir and KBC go into the first game of the national basketball league playoff semi-final series on Saturday with both coaches vowing to end one another’s hopes of winning the title.The other semi-final pits together two former champions APR and Circle Sportif de Kigali.Jean Bahufite, fresh from guiding Espoir team to their regular season title two weeks ago, wants to add the playoffs title to his collection, however, his counterpart from Kigali Basketball Club Jack Kimenyi will be having other ideas.Espoir dethroned KBC in regular season champions and the latter will go into the playoff three-game series hoping to turn tables over rivals, who remain the only unbeaten team in the league.Both Bahufite and Kimenyi have set sights on winning the Playoffs, with Game One scheduled for this Saturday and Games Two for Sunday at Kimisagara Youth Centre. “We did well in the league and in training while preparing for the playoffs, which is a good sign for us and I hope we will go in Game One with strong character and mentality of winning,” said Bahufite, a former Espoir player.He added, “We have been a winning team this season and I am confident we can maintain our winning form. We want to win the Playoffs title as well.”As for Kimenyi, he said, “We failed to defend our league title but we need to forget about the league and try to come back to win the playoffs.”“We have not done well in the league and now we want to turn things around in the playoffs,” added the former Kigali Institute of Education player.Espoir became the first team to win the regular season league title with an unbeaten run to 16 games all season and will go into the playoffs as firm favourites against Kigali Basketball Club.
