Rwanda’s journey in the 2023 FIBA Africa U16 boys’ championship came to a shocking end following a 78-94 quarter final loss to Egypt on Thursday night at Salle Mohamed Mzali in Monastir.
Egypt survived a first quarter (22-20) scare from Rwanda to claim the last Semi-Finals spot in a game that ended 94-78.
The Pharaohs came out strong to take a 47-34 lead at the break.
Both sides left it a close call at the end of the third quarter as Rwanda held on to a 24-21 score.
At the close of the final quarter, it was Egypt that had the upper hand at 26-20.
Omar Essam scored 18 points to lead Egypt while the pair of Annas Mohamed and Youssef Elhalawany added 10 points apiece.
Egypt guard Youssef Elhalawany summed up his team’s victory as a collective determination to win.
“We won today because we played as a group. We played hard on defense and did our best on offence,” Elhalawany said.
Rwanda’s Kennik Kabano was strong in the game and scored 21 points while Joseph Nshimiye added 17 points.
Kabano described the loss to Egypt as a sad one. “We’re sad that we lost but it’s not over for us as we hope to go into the classification games stronger and we thank our fans for keeping faith with us.”
Rwanda still has to play a classification game for 5th to 10th positions.
In the women’s category, Rwanda lost to Uganda 44-65 and they will play against Guinea in a 7-8 Classification Round match on Friday, paving the way for Uganda’s clash against Morocco in the 5-6 classification match.
