Results | Monday, 13th June
- Girls: Tanzania 50-40 Rwanda
- Boys: Uganda 38-59 Rwanda
Fixtures | Tuesday, 14th June
- Girls: Rwanda Vs Uganda – 4pm
- Boys: Uganda Vs Tanzania – 7pm
The disparity in size between Rwanda and Uganda at the Zone V U-18 AfroBasket Qualifiers is as clear as daylight.
And Rwanda used it to its advantage en route a 59-38 win over the junior Silverbacks at the Lugogo Indoor Stadium.
Brave Rutsindura (9 points & 13 rebounds) and Dick Rutatika (11 points & 7 rebounds) found no match in the stripe and were only limited by their poor finishing at the rim.
Rwanda led 11-5 at the end of the low-scoring first quarter but got better in the second to open a 15-point lead at the long break.
“They [Uganda] are very athletic and physical,” Rwanda coach Yves Murenzi said. “We came to play for a win, it wasn’t easy because they played a hard defense but we managed to use our Bigs well and then scored easy baskets,” he added.
Watoto guard and skipper James Osinde who scored game-high 13 points to go with 6 dimes had some sparks of brilliance in the third quarter running the floor well but was set back by an injury to his knee.
Throughout the game, Uganda missed several easy lay-ups that could have made the tie a contest but the biggest undoing were turnovers. The side terribly took care of the ball committing an unfathomable 38 turnovers that led to as many points.
“We played some stagnant offense today,” Uganda’s head coach Brian Wathum said after the game. “We missed some easy layups, we had forced and unforced turnovers so I believe we could have taken better care of the ball,” he added.
Samuel Ola (10 points and 11 rebounds), Marvin Jesse (8 points and 12 rebounds), and Solomon Olara (12 rebounds) were the other notable contributors for the Junior Silverbacks.
There’s no time to rest for Uganda as they take on Tanzania today.
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