SaturdayMen’s finalUrunani (Bur) 65-56 Espoir (Rwa)WomenEagle Wings (Ken) 67-62 USIU (Ken)Last year’s FIBA-Africa Zone V men’s finalists, Urunani from Burundi are this year’s champions after dethroning defending champions, Rwanda’s Espoir in the final played in Bujumbura on Saturday.The women’s category defending champions, Eagle Wings from Kenya retained the title after overcoming their Nairobi archrivals USIU in the final.Rwanda’s league champions Espoir basketball club, who were the defending champions of the men’s title paid the price for being overconfident, going down 65-56 in a repeat of last year’s final. APR won last year’s title in Kampala, Uganda after thrashing Urunani 90-39.It was the first defeat for Jean Bahufite’s side since the start of last year when they went through the entire season unbeaten and won both the national league title and playoff trophy.Espoir came into the week-long regional tournament as favourites and indeed lived to that billing until a mixture of overconfidence and lack of concentration cost them a second Zone V title.“It was just bad luck on our side. We controlled the game for the first three quarters but Urunani came back to beat us in the final quarter,” Espoir’s assistant coach Maxime Mwiseneza told Times Sport from the Burundian capital after the clash.In the women’s category, despite arriving late for the tournament, Kenya’s Eagle Wings successfully defended their title beating rivals United States International University (USIU) 67-62.In men’s category, New Stars of Burundi finished third ahead of Uganda’s Warriors who finished fourth, while in women’s competition, Uganda’s KCCA finished third and Les Gazelles of Burundi finished fourth.
