The Under-18 national basketball team started its Group B campaign at the 2022 FIBA U-18 African Championship on a low note after losing to Mali 49-67 on Thursday evening at Palais des Sports Mahamasina in Antananarivo, Madagascar.
The team lost the first three quarters of the game 11-16, 14-22 and 8-16, but fought back to win the last 16-13, but this was obviously not enough as the game ended 67-49 in favour of the West Africans.
Captain Sano Rutatika grabbed 13 points and 3 rebounds, while Ghislain Nubaha got 8 points and 9 rebounds.
For Mali, Adama Traore was the starman as he scored a game high 24 points.
Rwanda's next game will be against Guinea on Saturday, August 6.
The team is in Group B alongside Mali, Egypt, Guinea and Angola.
The tournament will undergo a group phase, with teams from Groups A and B playing in a round-robin format.
After this, one team from Group B will be eliminated and the remaining contenders will move to the knock-out phase and the quarter-finals.
The Quarter-finals are scheduled for Friday August 12, followed by semi-finals on August 13.
The final and classification games are scheduled for August 14.
The flagship event for U-18 was to be held with 10 teams originally, but Tanzania did not show up.
Tanzania was later replaced by Nigeria. Unfortunately, the latter did not turn up either.
Today
Rwanda 49-67 Mali
