Adventist University of Central Africa (AUCA) basketball team emerged winners when they beat The Mighty MKUR 59-52 points in a game held at AUCA main compass basketball court in Masoro – Gasabo district (Rwanda) on 4th, November 2022.
The game kicked off at 3:45 pm other than the slated 3:00pm due to rain and in less than 5 minutes, AUCA’s Belio Ntagwabira who is also the team captain scored their first goal.
Refusing to be left behind, The Mighty MKUR also scored their first goal thanks to Abdul Karim who was playing number 8. More scores were made by team AUCA’s Herman, David and their team captain Belio Ntagwabira and by the end of the first round, they were leading MKUR with 23-13 points.
In the first quarter of the second round, The Mighty MKUR had gained momentum and they scored more than their opponents courtesy of; number 8-Abdul Karim, number 5-Songa Danny Christian aka Nesta, and number 6-Makisanga King James.
Despite being smartly dressed in jerseys (The AUCA team didn’t have one which made it hard to tell the players apart) something one could consider professional, The mighty MKUR weren’t that “professional” during their game a thing that may have contributed to their loss.
Most of the time players were leaving the court and others coming in (anger issues); the team captain too Tony Ishimwe left the court and gave his jersey to someone else to play claiming that there was no chemistry amongst his players.
Darryl who was playing number 6 (strange because there was also another number 6 from the same team) was also spotted a couple of times exchanging words with his team mates and opponents.
AUCA team captain (seated) and his team mates celebrating after their win
“The game went well, although we had a few faults of miscommunications in the team, missed a few baskets here and there but because of team work and confidence, we finally won the game”, Collin Mananga – AUCA basketball team coach.
Speaking to the magazine reporter, players of The mighty MKUR (names with held) attributed their loss to the team captain who brought in his friend as a coach. “We have good players who could have played well for us but they were not allowed to play because the coach didn’t know them”, one of them said.
Another reason we lost is because we don’t have a basketball court where we can practice from, the AUCA team was not strong at all, they only won because they have been practicing and we haven’t, the other added.
