Sunday Final Espoir 81-79 CSK Third place play-off KBC 62-61 UR-Huye Women Ubumwe 43-48 RAPP (Saturday) RAPP 53-50 Ubumwe (Sunday) REIGNING CHAMPIONS Espoir and RAPP clinched men and women honours in this year’s Gisembe basketball memorial tournament which climaxed on Sunday. Espoir won the title after snatching a narrow 81-79 victory over archrivals Cercle Sportif de Kigali (CSK) in the final while Rwanda Allied Peace for Progress (RAPP) claimed the tournament after beating defending champions Ubumwe in two matches 48-43, 53-50 on Saturday and Sunday respectively. Espoir’s Lionel Hakizimana and Pascal Karekezi were on high scoring 15 points each while Olivier Shyaka and Bienvenu Ngandu added 14 points apiece. Team captain Aristide Mugabe scored 10 points. “We are not done yet until we win the international edition too. Thanks to my team for the title,” Espoir head coach Jean Bahufite said yesterday. Kigali basketball club (KBC) who beat CSK 78-70 in the group stages on Saturday finished third in the tournament after narrowly beating UR- Huye campus 62-61 in the third place play-off. The international basketball memorial tournament edition set for the upcoming weekend in Kigali where Espoir, CSK and KBC will face regional participants from Kenya, Uganda, Burundi and DR Congo for the title while Ubumwe and RAPP will tussle it out in the women category. Regional teams expected to grace the tournament include; 2013 Men’s title winners Urunani and Muzinga (Men) and Belco stars of Burundi, Uganda’s Warriors, City Oil (men) and Magic stormers (Women), DR Congo’s PGB (men and women), Ulinzi (men) and Equity Bank (Women) from Kenya.
