The president of the national basketball governing body (Ferwaba) Fidele Rutagarama has hailed APR’s resilience in the14th Fiba-Africa Women Club Championships that wrapped up last Saturday in Kenya.

The Rwandan giants scooped a 7th spot finish to emerge as the best ranked team in East and Central Africa.

"The team did well. It emerged as the best team in the region. It even beat Kenya’s KPA who won the Africa Zone 5 Club Championships in Ethiopia last month,” Rutagarama said.

Despite losing to Angola’s Primero de Agosto, APR made sure they finished their campaign on a high by thumping KPA 67-50.

It was sweet revenge for the first timers who painfully lost to the hosts 44-43 at the group stage.

After the game, APR’s assistant coach Charles Mbazumutima told Fiba-Africa that he was happy at the achievement.

"We are happy to come here and end up in seventh position in only our first tournament. It gives us hope that we can do better in future,” he said.

Desportivo of Mozambique meanwhile retained the championship title after a 70-63 victory over Primero de Agosto in a thrilling final.

Desportivo are the first team to retain the trophy since 2003 and Kenya the first hosts to fail to win in the same period.

First Bank from Nigeria finished third after beating ABC from Ivory Coast 64-53 in the third and fourth playoffs.

CSA of Ivory Coast wound up in fifth position after shocking Djoliba 59-57 in a closely fought game.

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