Patriots are now focused on defending their BK Basketball National League title when the 2020 season starts on January 10, head coach Francis Odhiambo has said. The two-time reigning champions turn attention on the new league season following their impressive qualification to the Basketball Africa League (BAL) 2020 regular season over the weekend. “Now the attention has turned to the new league season. The players will have a few days of rest before reporting back to training after New Year’s,” said Odhiambo. “All the players gave it their best to secure the qualification, I am very happy for the collective and individual effort they made to accomplish. But, we, as a team, can’t relax and forget on the work ahead. “With the league and the BAL tournament, 2020 is going to be even busier.” The Rwandan giants booked their ticket to the inaugural edition of the continental showpiece after winning all their nine – four in the first round and five in the second round – games in the qualifiers, which started in October. At the just concluded second round qualification tournament, Patriots beat Madagascar’s GNBC 94-63 in the final on Sunday, but the two sides had already secured their slots by reaching the final. Ferroviario, of Mozambique, were the third and final team to qualify from Group H after beating Uganda’s City Oilers in the third-place playoff. The Kigali event marked the end of BAL 2020 qualifications, with the competition set to get underway in March. After the regular season, which will be played under two conferences, similar to the NBA format, and the ‘Super 6’ phase, Rwanda will host the competition’s semi-finals – also known as ‘Final Four’ – and the final at Kigali Arena in May. Patriots won the rights to represent the country in the BAL qualifiers in September after their remarkable comeback where they came from a 3-1 deficit to beat Rwanda Energy Group 4-3 in the playoff games finals.
