Wednesday results

Men

Playoffs finals, Game 1

Patriots 75-70 REG

Women

Playoffs finals, Game 1

REG 60-57 APR

Patriots BBC, on Wednesday night, beat Rwanda Energy Group (REG) 75-70 to take Game 1 of the best-of-five finals of the National Basketball League playoffs.

Chris Crawford of The Patriots posted a game-high 27 points in the tense game held at the BK Arena.

The match was highly contested, due to among other reasons, the fact that the champions will represent Rwanda in the Basketball Africa League (BAL), an NBA-sponsored club championship that takes place annually.

Henry Mwinuka’s REG started with a great performance, winning the first quarter 23-17 and the second one 20-17 to go into half-time with a 43-34 lead.

Returning for the second half, The Patriots bounced back to claim the third quarter 24-18, and last quarter with 17-9.

Besides Crawford’s scoring exploits for The Patriots, his counterparts Steven Hagumintwari and Kenneth Gasana netted 18 and 13 points respectively.

For REG, guard Adonis Filer dropped 17 points and Jean-Jacques Wilson Nshobozwabyosenumukiza added 14 points.

"This is a very good step forward, winning the first game of the series is always a massive boost” Ben Oluoch, the head coach of The Patriots said.

Meanwhile, in the women's category, REG women basketball increased their chances of winning the title after beating defending champions APR 60-57 in the first game of the best-of-five playoff finals.