Patriots clinched a third consecutive title of the Basketball league in Rwanda for men’s category and The Hoops won their first title for women’s category .
The Patriots, founded in 2014 won their fourth and third in a row yesterday after overcoming REG BBC at the finals of the tournament created to conclude the basketball league.
The Bank of Kigali sponsored league kicked off in January 2020 with 14 teams and was later in March 2020 halted together with all other sports activities as a means to combat the spread of the Corona Virus outbreak. Rwanda basketball governing body FERWABA at a general assembly meeting held on September 12 this year, decided that Basketball League should be resumed and played in a tournament format.
In a bubble setting, BKBNL resumed in October 2020. There were 3 different stages; group stages, semi-finals and finals. Yesterday Saturday, the rivalry between Patriots BBC and REG BBC resumed in the final of the tournament. Patriots BBC led all 4 quarters of the game to guarantee a win over REG BBC and a third conservation title stacking up their tally of 4 since their establishment in 2014.
In the women’s category, it was a historic day for Mutokambali’s The Hoops Rwanda as they won their first basketball league title. They achieved victory over RP-IPRC Huye in an intense match which ended in a close score of 68-63. RP-IPRC put up a good fight leading the first, second and through to the third quarter of the game but this was not good enough to match the energy when The Hoops put matters into their hands in the last quarter. It was an unimaginable scene for side RP-IPRC Huye who had not lost a single league game since July 2019.
Men’s third place was taken by IPRC Kigali after beating APR BBC 87-79 and Ubumwe in women’s category after beating APR BBC 66-52.
The Hoops Rwanda will represent the country in Zone 5 games while the Patriots will feature in the African Basketball League for the second consecutive time.
