Rwanda finish 10th in Africa

9-10 PlaceTunisia 76-54 Rwanda11-12 PlaceAlgeria 56-78 Mozambique13-14 PlaceCongo 63-64 Central Africa15-16 PlaceMali 71-70 OT Burkina Faso RWANDA made an improvement in this year’s Fiba Afrobasket Championships for Men, finishing tenth after losing to defending champions Tunisia in the 9-10 classification round match played on Wednesday night in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire.After falling to Senegal in the eighth final round, Rwanda was left to battle for ninth place but it didn’t go according to plan after losing to the North African rivals 54-78.Tunisia started strong and dominated most part of the game. They had 23-13 lead in the first quarter, while Rwanda replied with a 25-12 surge in the second.In the second half, Tunisia restricted Rwanda to just 16 points, (8 in the third and fourth quarters respectively). Tunisia meanwhile posted 23 points in the third pquarter and added 18 points in the last.Mourad El Mabrouk scored a game high 18 points and Kechrid Marouna notched 14. Chennoufi Ziyed and Mouhli Omar scored nine points each.Kami Kabange and Thierry Suku Suku replied with 10 points each for Rwanda, while Daniel Rugamba had 9. Bradley Cameron and Aristide Mugabe poured in 8 points apiece.And after the game, head coach Moise Mutokambali hailed his team’s performance in this year’s tournament.He said, “We are so thankful to God for the tenth-place finish. My boys did all they could and I am so proud of their performance. We faced tough opponents in general and we didn’t have an effective squad as we had two or three players, who played every game because we didn’t have suitable replacements.”“Having finished 13th in 2009, finishing tenth is a major improvement for our country. We thank everyone who supported us in this tournament,” added Mutokambali.Rwanda’s best Afrobasket result was a ninth-place finish in the 16-team competition of 2007.Mozambique finished 11th following 78-56 win over Algeria, while Central Africa Republic snatched a narrow 64-63 win over Congo Brazzaville to finish 13th and Mali posted a 71-70 win in overtime against Burkina Faso to finish 15th.

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Rwanda finish 10th in Africa