Saturday APR vs Patriots 7pm

Sunday - WomenAPR vs The Hoops 9amThe Hoops vs Ubumwe

MenPatriots vs U18 Boys Team 11amUGB vs Espoir 1pmU18 Boys Team vs APR 6pm

This year’s National Heroes Day basketball tournament gets underway on Saturday and will run until Monday, February 1, at CSK, UR-CST and Amahoro indoor stadium courts.

The three-day tournament has attracted a total of eight teams (five men and three women). The men’s teams have been drawn in two groups while female teams will play against each other on a round-robin basis.

Group A includes Espoir and United Generation Basketball (UGB), while Group B is comprised of Patriots, U18 Boys National Team and APR. While the women teams include Ubumwe, APR and The Hoops Rwanda.

There will be one game on Saturday, which will pit Cliff Owuor’s APR against in-form Henry Mwinuke’s Patriots at 7pm at UR- College of Science and Technology (UR- CST) courts (formerly KIST).

"This is our chance to win the first tournament of the season; we’re taking it seriously and we’ll give everything possible. Players are all in upbeat mood, and I also plan to use the whole squad for the players to get a chance to play,” Patriots’ Tanzanian trainer Mwinuke told Saturday Sport.

Espoir (men) and Ubumwe (women) are defending champions of the annual tournament. Jean Bahufite’s Espoir beat CSK 81-61 in the final while Ubumwe saw off archrivals APR 61-52.

editorial@newtimes.co.rw