Rwanda's Afrobasket 2021 journey over

By Damas Sikubwabo

Rwanda bowed out of the Afrobasket 2021 tournament after losing 68-72 to Guinea in a playoff match that was aimed at seeking a quarter-final ticket.

The game that took place on Monday August 30, at the Kigali Arena saw the two nations go toe-to-toe in all the four quarters of the game, with only a few points difference often between them.

The hosts played well especially in the third quarter where they held a 10-point lead, but the Guineans showcased resilience, coming from ten points down to win by 28 points.

Despite struggling to shoot from the floor, Guinea's dangerman Mansare scored a team-high 16 points, 8 coming from a perfect shooting on the line.

Cheick Sekou Conde added 15 points while Queta contributed an important 13 points.

Rwanda's Kenneth Gasana poured in game-high 28 points, while Prince Ibeh added 10 points and 8 rebounds.

In a post-game interview, Cheikh Sarr, Rwanda's head coach said that "We had a chance to win but we lost focus in real time, in the last 3 minutes we lost confidence and lost a lot of balls and the shots we made didn't go well".

"The competition organization was the best we had and we brought in the players to make it stronger where we thought we were with less energy." He said

The hosts opened their Afrobasket 2021 campaign with a resounding 82-68 victory over the Democratic Republic of Congo. Two days later, Rwanda recorded their biggest win at Afrobasket after beating Angola 71-68.

With Kigali Arena almost at full capacity, what else could have Rwanda asked for to sail through a tough Cape Verde team had other plans; they never panicked, beating Rwanda 82-74 in Group A's last game.

Rwanda finished their Group Phase run with a 2-1 record. Guinea will take on Cote d'Ivoire in the quarterfinals on Wednesday.

In the first game of the day between two former African champions, Angola outscored Egypt 70-62 to return to the Quarter-Finals for the 21st time since 1980.

Former AfroBasket MVP Carlos Morais scored 12 of his game-high 16 points from beyond the arc, Gerson 'Lukeny' Goncalves added 23, and rising star Gilson Bango took care of the boards' battle to finish with a game-best eight rebounds.

This article was originally published by The New Times. [Photo: The New Times]