Patriots players Kenneth Gasana and Guibert Nijimbere have joined Burundian basketball club New Stars ahead of the Basketball Africa League (BAL) qualifiers round of 16 that will start next month in Johannesburg, South Africa Gasana, 37, is a celebrated shooting guard in Rwandan basketball circles due to the achievements he has registered through the years for both club and country, where among other things, he was a key figure for the Patriots side that reached the semi-finals of the inaugural Basketball Africa League (BAL) that took place in Kigali in May this year. Nijimbere, 21, is a Burundian point-guard who is continuing to rise on Rwanda’s basketball scene, and is currently among the best in the local league. For the qualifiers round of 16, New Stars were placed in the Eastern Division, Group H1 which consists of Cape Town Tigers (South Africa), Kurasini Heats (Tanzania) and Matero Magic (Zambia). During the qualifiers, the four teams in each of the four groups will play against each other, and the teams that finish in the top-two places of each of the 4 groups will advance to the second round of the qualifiers where they will play semi-finals, finals and a third-place game. The winners of the semi-finals and winners of the third-place game will qualify to the second edition of BAL. The league champions of Angola, Egypt, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal and Tunisia qualified automatically to the final tournament, where they will be joined by 6 other teams that will have made it from the qualifiers. Rwanda Energy Group (REG) are the local league champions in Rwanda, and gained an automatic ticket to the BAL. Meanwhile, on Monday, Times Sport learned that Rwandan Small forward Dieudonné Ndizeye had agreed to play for South Sudanese basketball club Cobra Sports Club in the BAL qualifiers.
