Monday

Men’s finals, Game 2IPRC-South 66-63 Patriots

3rd PlaceIPRC-Kigali 71-69 Espoir

National Basketball League giants IPRC- South defeated archrivals Patriots in a narrow 66-63 victory on Monday night at Amahoro Indoor Stadium to level the finals series on 1-1, going into Game 3 on Friday.

The regular league reigning champions Patriots who won Game One 71-65 on Saturday, were in a better position to even win Game Two but a well-organized Charles Mushumba’s side fought back to recover from a shaky 39-17 first-half to win the game in a highly entertaining and very competitive encounter.

Henry Mwinuke’s Patriots easily won the first quarter 16-4 before claiming the second quarter 23-13 to go into half-time with a comfortable 39-17 lead. However, Huye-based hopefuls turned their fortunes around to override Patriots 23-10 in the third quarter and 25-14 in the final quarter for the crucial win.

Skipper Bienvenu Niyonsaba, Didier Ishimwe and Congolese-born point-guard Yesman Bushiri led IPRC-South charge to glory while Rwanda international Aristide Mugabe, skipper Ali Kubwimana, Elie Kaje and Patrick Habyarimana were on form for Patriots.

In a post-match interview, IPRC-South captain Niyonsaba told Times Sport, "We are happy, it’s a pleasure for me and the entire team, the performance was unbelievable. There is no time to relax; we are now shifting the attention to the remaining fixtures.”

In the third-place play-offs, Albert Buhake’s IPRC- Kigali defied odds to stun Espoir 71-69 in a hard fought victory to also level the matter on 1-1 ahead of Game 3 slated for Friday. Espoir, who won the last four Play-off Games titles since 2012, beat IPRC- Kigali 86-85 in Game 1 on Saturday.

By reaching finals, IPRC- South have automatically qualified to represent the country in the 2017 FIBA Africa Zone Five Club Championship alongside league champions Patriots.

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