Individual Awards
Women
Top Rebounder  - Auma Purity  - Kenya
Best Free throw shooter - Ayebare Honour  - Rwanda
Best 2 points shooter  - Karangwa Mireille - Rwanda
Best 3 points shooter  - Ayebare Honore  - Rwanda
Top Scorer  - Ayebare Honore  - Rwanda
MVP  - Ayebare Honore  - Rwanda
Men
Top Rebounder  - Rob Thomson  - Rwanda
Best Free throw shooter - Rob Thomson  - Rwanda
Best 2 points shooter  - Saidi Haytham  - Egypt
Best 3 points shooter  - Saidi Haytham  - Egypt
Top Scorer  - Saidi Haytham  - Egypt
MVP  – Saidi Haytham  – Egypt

Hamza Ruhezamihigo—is the captain and the star man on Rwanda’s men basketball team and so he was supposed to be at the centre of Rwanda’s game at the just concluded Zone V Fiba-Africa qualifying championship in Kigali.

The Canadian-based point-guard cum shooting-guard won the Most Valuable Player accolade at the last championship held in Kigali two years ago and going into this year’s event, so much was expected from him, not only by the home crowd but also the opposition—he was the man to watch out for.

Host nation Rwanda counted on Ruhezamihigo to help the national team make an impact at the Championship and indeed he helped the team but he was the not star of the team, he failed to reproduce his form of 2007 and he would be the first to admit to that.

This is not critic of him but he was overshadowed by the performances of two of his fellow professionals on the team Robert Thompson and Mathieu Miller, particularly the former.

Ruhezamihigo, who plays for Concordia in Canada where he studies and lives became a crowd favourite during the 2007 Africa Championship qualifiers in Kigali when he played a pivotal role in helping Rwanda qualify for her first ever Afro-basket competition.

For his impressive performances, he was voted as the tournament’s Most Valuable Player (MVP), an award he overwhelmingly deserved, but also put him at the ‘risk’ of being at the vanguard of the public interest. 

But it was Thompson, who stole the show as far the most partisan home crowd was concerned yet Ruhezamihingo’s cause wasn’t helped at all when the coach Kavedzija Vacescav kept taking him off whenever he sensed things weren’t going well for the crowd’s favourite son.

Having him is a big boost to team as his potential is there for all to see, no one can questioned his talent and skill, and also his experience adds plenty to the any team he plays for but this Championship must have left him a little disappointed him own game.

Romanian-based Thompson was the only Rwandan (men) to win any of the individual awards at stake when scooped the Top Rebounder and Best Free throw shooter’s accolades.

Contrary to the 2007 event when Ruhezamihigo swept aside everything in-front of him from opponents, whom he left chasing his shadow to all individual awards, this time round, nothing seemed to go his way and whenever the going got tough, he went missing!

Ayebare is born
Two years ago, Ruhezamihigo was an unknown item to the Rwandan basketball community but his imperative performances made him probably the most talked about basketball player in Rwanda’s recent history, two year’s later, another unknown became famous in a matter of weeks.

She can hardly speak a proper word in Kinyarwanda but US-based Honore Ayebare led Rwanda’s ladies’ team to the Zone V title and consequently became the new Ruhezamihigo of the women team.

The pocket-sized but vastly talented ace treated the home crowd to real basketball, which won her admiration on the terraces and beyond, no wonder at the end of the week-long tournament, she took home four of six individual awards up for grabs.

She was voted the Most Valuable Players (MVP), Top Scorer, Best 3 points shooter as well as the Best Free throw shooter.

Another Rwandan based in Europe Mireille Karangwa, won the Best 2 points shooter while Kenya’s Purity Auma was Top Rebounder.

The week-long championship produced some scintillating basketball especially by the eventual champions Egypt, first and second runners-up Rwanda and Kenya (men) and in the women, it was the top two sides (Rwanda and Kenya) that gave the crowd something to cheer about.

Egypt continue dominance
It was the same story as two years ago when Rwanda and Egypt dominated the headlines and for the second consecutive championship, Egypt (men) proved quite too strong for their opponents but unlike in 2007, Rwanda’s women turned tables on their adversaries in a pretty devastating form.

Two years ago, hosts Rwanda faced Egypt in the men’s final and the better team obviously won but both qualified for the Fiba-Africa Nations Cup in Angola yet that year, Rwanda’s women team could only manage third-place finish behind eventual champions Kenya and the beaten finalists Burundi.

Fast forward and two years later, Rwanda are champions while the Burundi could only finish last behind defending champs Kenya and Uganda, who took third place.

Unfortunately, this year’s event had a number of team s withdrawing citing different reasons but the most outstanding one being financial.

Countries like Tanzania, Ethiopia and Sudan were supposed to participate but pulled out leaving only Egypt, Rwanda, Kenya, Burundi and Uganda to battle it out for the men’s title while only Rwanda, Kenya, Uganda and Burundi contested the women’s crown.

As hosts, Rwanda desperately needed to repeat their 2007 heroics when they finished second to Egypt in the qualifiers thereby earning a ticket to the Afro-basket competition staged in Angola.

The defending champions Egypt were in a class of their own as they easily won all their games; they beat Kenya 101-39, Uganda 95-53, Burundi 95-50 and Rwanda 71-41.

No wonder they point guard Saidi Haytham did a Ruhezamihigo of 2007 by scooping all in front of him—he went home with MVP, Top Scorer, Best 2 points shooter and Best 3 points shooter’s awards.  

But unlike two years ago when only the men’s team qualified for the continental championship, Rwanda will have both her men and women teams rubbing shoulders against the best on the African continent—and like Vacescav said after his teams qualified, the biggest challenge lies ahead.

Ends