Rwanda international Kenneth ‘Kenny’ Gasana has called on his teammates to strive to up their game so that they can yet again put up a stunning performance at the forthcoming second round of FIBA World Cup – African Qualifiers.
Gasana made the appeal following Rwanda’s outstanding performance at the just concluded Window 2 games of the first round that took place in Lagos, Nigeria last week in which they advanced to the second and final round as the only East African country.
Gasana who is one of the longest-serving players on the team, was pivotal in securing the ticket to the next round of qualifiers. The 33-year old shooting guard contributed a total 53 points, 18 rebounds, 7 steals and 11 assists in three games against Mali, Nigeria and Uganda.
Rwanda which had started these games bottom tied on four points as second and third placed Uganda and Mali respectively, progressed to the second round as Group B’s first runners-up with 9 points from three wins and three defeats respectively.
During Window 2 in Lagos last week, Rwanda got off a winning start, 82-72, over Mali but heavily lost 70-111 to mighty Nigeria in the second game before overcoming Uganda 92-79 in a winner-take-all class on Sunday.
The two-time FIBA Africa Zone 5 champions, Rwanda, are one of the twelve teams that have advanced to the ultimate qualifiers round – to compete for the five slots to the maiden 32-team FIBA World Cup in China next year.
"I am just happy and proud of the guys, everyone has been working hard for the tournament. For the last three years, Uganda have been tough on us with back-to-back victories in different competitions, winning against them was such a gratifying return of the favour,” said Gasana.
"Hopefully going forward, we can improve and set ourselves to doing better in the second round. We played some good basketball in Lagos and no doubt we deserved to progress. If we remain focused and invest a lot of efforts in early preparations, possibilities are limitless – hopefully we can surprise more teams,” the Rwandan-American guard added.
After the conclusion of the second window games, the 12 qualified teams are Tunisia, Cameroun and Chad from Group A, Nigeria, Rwanda and Mali from Group B, Angola, Egypt and Morocco from Group C and Senegal, Central African Republic and Cote d’Ivoire from Group D.
The teams have been divided into two Groups, E & F, with Group E comprised of Tunisia, Cameroun, Angola, Egypt, Morocco and Chad while Group F is composed of Nigeria, Senegal, Central African Republic, Rwanda, Mali and Cote d’Ivoire.
The first legs will take place during the fourth window (September 10-18, 2018), with the return legs to follow during the fifth window (November 26-December 4, 2018) and the sixth window (February 20-28, 2019).
The top two teams from Group E and Group F as well as the best third-ranked team from either pool will secure automatic tickets for the world’s biggest basketball tournament.
The first-ever 32-team edition of FIBA’s flagship competition will take place from August 31-September 15, 2019, in China.
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