Rwanda crush U-18 Women’s AfroBasket host South Africa in group opener

How do you get everyone talking about you in a competition? Begin that tournament with a bang!

That’s exactly what Rwanda have done as they trounced host FIBA U18 Women’s AfroBasket host 102-37 to leave basketball fans waxing lyrical about their impressive display.

Shooting guard Brigitte Nibishaka scored a game-high 25 points to fire Rwanda to a resounding victory over hosts South Africa, who looked helpless and void of imagination in the opening game of the FIBA U-18 Women's AfroBasket.

The Rwandans put up a commanding performance from the word go, overwhelming their South African counterparts in almost every aspect of the game, be it shooting, rebounding, or making steals.

Nibishaka and her compatriots including Yvonne Muhawenimana and Vanessa Prissy Camara were on scoring galore as Rwanda finished the first half with a massive 47-17 lead, to make it so hard for the South Africans to even think of a comeback as the home fans had heads in hands in utter disappointment.

Not much changed in the second half, as the Rwandans won the third and fourth quarters convincingly 29-12 and 26-8 respectively to seal their first victory in style. Besides Nibishaka’s game-high, her teammate Camara added 22 points, while Muhawenimana contributed19. Leah Fourholm topped South Africa’s scoring with 9 points, whereas Ntokozo Thonga contributed 8.

"I thank my players; they performed very well in this game. They executed the instructions that I gave them. We are going to prepare for the second game. We will face Tunisia, which is a great team,” Rwanda’s head coach Jacques Bahige.

After the impressive performance against South Africa, Rwanda will be up against Tunisia in what is expected to be a tougher test on September 5.

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