Rwanda U-16 national basketball team head coach Albert Buhake has called for more international friendly matches ahead of the 4th Youth African Basketball Championships slated for late July. The technician revealed the development to Times Sport on Tuesday, two days after his youthful team ousted counterparts of Ethiopia in Zone five qualifiers over the weekend at Amahoro indoor stadium.

Rwanda will be making their debut at the continental scene in the U-16 category, of a better point aggregate (121-119) over two matches after recovering from Saturday’s 67-52 defeat to win the second match 69-52 on Sunday.

"Thumbs up to my boys for a positive and mature mentality they showed on Sunday, bouncing from Saturday’s 15-point gap  was not an easy call. The next move is to look for as many more international friendly matches as possible,” Buhake told this paper.

He further noted that at least four friendly matches against countries not from East African region would boost his youngsters with experience and confidence, citing games against North and West African giants as top priority.

In a separate interview, local basketball governing body’s (Ferwaba) secretary general Richard Mutabazi said the federation is going to make both boys’ and girls’ teams start residential camp for intensive preps early enough and also try to secure friendly matches for the hoops.

The Ferwaba official also disclosed that warm-up matches against countries such as Egypt, Tunisia or Mali would be a huge experience ahead of the Men’s Afrobasket in Mali and Women’s tourney in Madagascar respectively.

Angola (men) and Mali (women) won the 3th edition of the biannual tournaments in 2013 and will come into competitions as defending champions.