Junior Hoops suffer 98-62 defeat to Nigeria

Results Yesterday Mozambique 50-81 Congo Brazzaville Gabon 60-55 Angola Algeria 62-94 MaliNigeria 83-65 RwandaTunisia 62-98 Egypt Today Nigeria vs Congo (noon)Tunisia vs Ivory Coast (2pm)Algeria vs Mozambique (4pm)Rwanda vs Mali (6pm)Egypt vs Angola (8pm) With an agreeably strong start in the first quarter, the national U-18 team, the ‘Junior Hoops’ went to sleep and turned an early lead into defeat at the hands of Nigeria 83-65. The game started with the ‘Junior hoops’ in high spirit leading the first quarter with a two points difference (19-17) due to the great shorts made by the team’s shooting guard Lionel Hakizimana, however, the Nigerian side bounced back aggressively and dominated the next three quarters. Moses Geofrey and Agu Sherif Chukwuname top scored for Nigeria with 21 and 20 points respectively. Geofrey had 10 assists. Lionel Hakizimana was Rwanda’s top scorer with 16 points, while Marc Rusaharaza added 15 points as the hosts failed to repeat the heroirics of the opening day when they came from behind to beat Algeria. After the resounding defeat to one of the tournament favourites, Rwanda’s trainer Paris Nelson attributed the loss to several factors. “We just did a bad job of defending, rebounding and failed to stop the penetrations since they penetrated vey well,” the American explained. The nine-day championship enters its third day today with the five matches on card. Five-time champions Nigeria take on Congo Brazzaville, Tunisia against Ivory Coast, Algeria face Mozambique while the hosts, Rwanda)play Mali and Egypt face Angola. Ends