BASKETBALL LEAGUESunday

APR     48-30     CSKEspoir     72-64     KBCSaturdayUGB     49-48     APREspoir     94-46     30-Plus

WomenAPR     48-41     RAPP

National basketball league defending champions, Espoir maintained their unbeaten record after registering back-to-back victories over the weekend to retain the top spot on the table.The Nyamirambo-based side won 94-46 against bottom-placed 30-Plus on Saturday before beating their closest challengers, Kigali BasketballClub (KBC) 72-64 on Sunday, both games were played at Amahoro indoor stadium court.KBC forward Sankara Uwimana scored a high 26 points, but it wasn’t enough as he didn’t get enough support from his team mates against a sold Espoir, who are unbeaten in the local league since last season.Point guard and last season’s MVP Arstide Mugabe scored 22 points, while his colleagues Bienvenue Ngandu and Lionnel Hakizimana added 18 and 16 points respectively for Jean Bahufite’s team."Our hopes to win the league title appear to be over, after losing to Espoir, we can now focus on finishing first runners-up at least,” KBC head coach Cyrille Kalima told Times Sport.In a separate interview, Espoir’s small forward Hakizimana was happy with his team’s latest victories that took close to retaining the regular season title.With three rounds of matches left, the former APR player said, "To win comfortably such a big game against our closest rivals shows how much we are determined to write more history. We want another unbeaten season to add to last season.”In other league matches, Cercle sportif de Kigali (CSK) had a terrible weekend, losing 61-40 to KBC on Friday before going down 48-30 to former champions APR on Sunday, who themselves had been shocked  49-48 by United Generation Basketball (UGB on Saturday.Igole Mugisha and Frank Dushimiyimana scored 14 and 9 points respectively for Cliff Owuor’s APR in the win over.In women’s league, defending champions APR maintain their unbeaten run with a 48-41 victory against Rwanda Allied Peace for Progress (RAPP) on Saturday.