REG, IPRC-South crowned Heroes basketball tournament champions

RWANDA Energy Group (men) and IPRC-South (women) were on crowned champions of the 2018 National Heroes Basketball Tournament that concluded on Sunday evening at Amahoro Indoor Stadium.

Monday, February 05, 2018
REG players celebrating after overcoming Patriots on Sunday night at Amahoro Indoor stadium. (Photos by Richard Bishumba)

Sunday: Men

REG                        54-51     Patriots

Espoir                    78-71     IPRC-South

Women

IPRC-South         79-77     APR

U18 National Team 65-75 Ubumwe

RWANDA Energy Group (men) and IPRC-South (women) were on crowned champions of the 2018 National Heroes Basketball Tournament that concluded on Sunday evening at Amahoro Indoor Stadium.

REG claimed the title after overcoming archrivals Patriots in a narrow 54-51 win while IPRC-South stunned hopefuls APR in another hard fought 79-77 win to clinch the women’s title. Both champions walked away with trophies and Rwf 500.000 cash prize each.

The clash between Patriots and REG was befitting of a final in-front of a fully packed Amahoro Indoor Stadium. Despite a promising first quarter 17-12 win for Patriots, REG responded quickly and never looked back, taking the remaining three quarters, 12-11, 16-12 and 14-11 respectively.

Patriots’ Kenyan forward Michael Ongea Makiadi scored a game 23 points while Junior Aubin Kasongo, added 8 points.

REG’s Rwanda international Kami Kabange posted 14 points and made 9 rebounds while Bienvenu Ngandu and Walter Nkurunziza contributed 9 and 8 points each.

Espoir beat IPRC-South 78-71 on Saturday evening, finished second and pocketed Rwf300.000 while Patriots took third place.

IPRC-South stunned hopefuls APR in another hard fought 79-77 win to clinch the women’s title. 

Espoir’s Pascal Niyonkuru was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player (MVP) while Rwanda international Nicole Urwibutso of IPRC-South scooped the women’s award.

In the women’s title-deciding game, APR’s Burundian small-forward Sandra Kantore posted a game 30 points but it was a team effort of Nicole Urwibutso (23 points), Joselyne Munyaneza (16 points) and Cecile Nzaramba (13 points) propelled IPRC- South to victory, dethroning Ubumbwe.

APR finished second and walked away with Rwf 300.000.

After the National Heroes Tournament, attention turns to the 2017/2018 league, which resumes on February 9 with the second round.

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