Kabange shines in REG’s big win over UGB in basketball league

Friday nightREG 126-81 UGBAPR 62-57 Espoir Center Kami Kabange scored a game high 30 points to lead Rwanda Energy Group (REG) to an emphatic 126-81 win over United Generation Basketball Club (UGB) in a national basketball league game played Friday night at Amahoro Indoor Stadium. The victory for Cyrille Kalima’s star-studed REG over youthful a UGB was the biggest league win recorded by any team this season. The defending champions, led by the reigning Most Valuable Player (MVP) Kabange, showed their intent from the onset, taking control of the game and dominated all quarters; 28-18, 37-27, 31-11 and 30-25 respectively. Kabange, a former MVP in the Uganda basketball league side with City Oilers, proved yet again why he is by far the best player in the Rwandan league scoring a game high 30 points. The Rwanda international has now scored a combined 107 points in the last three league games after scoring 32 against IPRC-South and 35 points against Rusizi, last weekend. Teammate Olivier Shyaka, who joined REG last month from Espoir, contributed 19 points while Burundian Tressor Nijimbere was UGB’s top scorer with 18 points. Elsewhere on Friday night, APR won the battle of former champions against Espoir in a tightly fought 62-57 win. Aime Karim Nkusi’s youthful APR claimed the first quarter 13-11 while Espoir grabbed the second, 19-17, to go into half-time with both sides tied at 30 points. APR, chasing a record-extending eighth league title, dominated the third quarter, 24-9 but Espoir fought back to snatch the fourth quarter 18-8 but it was not enough to save the day for Maxime Mwiseneza’s men. Espoir’s Emile Kazeneza (15 points) and Patrick Niyonkuru (14 points) led the scoring chart while Jean de Dieu Ntagunduka topped APR’s scoring with 12 points. REG remain top of the table with a maximum 8 points from 4 games. editorial@newtimes.co.rw

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Kabange shines in REG’s big win over UGB in basketball league