Rwanda national basketball team head coach Moise Mutokambali has tipped his boys to reach semi-finals of the upcoming U18 FIBA African Basketball Championship slated for July 22-31 in Kigali.

The team, who are in residential camp at Green Hills Academy for intensive preparations since June 21, are in great shape and looking forward to continental showpiece, according to 35-year old tactician Mutokambali.

Rwanda will be hosting junior African Basketball Championship (U-18 AfroBasket) for the second time in six years.

In the first tournament the country hosted in 2010, the national team finished in the sixth place.

"Our aim is to go one or two steps better than 2010, the players are in great shape and ready to impress. The recent trip to United States has also been so vital in improving their level of basketball and maturity, I can see them improving by the day,” he told this newspaper on Wednesday.

"We are training regularly on a daily basis; the team spirit here is so interesting. The least we are targeting is semi-finals. We also know that finalists will automatically qualify for the U-19 FIBA World Cup and we want that ticket too, there is no limit to what we can achieve,” Mutokambali added.

When asked potential threats, he said any team in the competition can beat any opponent but singled out defending champions Egypt, Mali, Angola and Algeria as the sides to watch out for.

Seven countries namely Egypt, Mali, Angola, Algeria, Tunisia, Zimbabwe and hosts Rwanda have already qualified for the 10-day long tournament.

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