Hoops win in Italy

Rwanda 99-73 Milan selectSaturdayRwanda v Turkey RWANDA’s men basketball team showed glimpses of what it is capable of after a solid performance against a Milan select side on Wednesday night. The team, camping in Italy ahead of the 25th FIBA Africa Nations Championship (2009 Afrobasket) in Libya thumped the Milan select side 99-73 to signal their intentions at the lucrative competition scheduled to run from August 5 to 15 in Tripoli and Benghazi. Rwanda’s head coach Kavedzija Vaceslav though chose to rest Robert Thomson. The center player is trying to shake off a niggling pain just above his left ankle but reports from Italy indicate that he will be fit for tomorrow’s tricky game against Turkey. “Word from Italy is that Vaceslav did not want to risk him (Thomson) on Wednesday night but he should play on Saturday,” the president of the national basketball federation (Ferwaba) Eric Kalisa explained. Rwanda is seeded in Group D alongside Cape Verde, Morocco and Tunisia and will open their Afrobasket campaign on August 5 with a tricky test against Morocco; winners in 1965. The Afrobasket competition is a biannual event which dates back in 1962. Angola is the record champion with nine titles. Ends

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Hoops win in Italy