Rwanda annihilates Togo in an 87-67 in 2011 FIBA Africa Championship
Rwanda annihilated Togo 87-67 in the preliminary round of the 26th FIBA Africa Championship for Men. After this game Rwanda stands at No. 3 with four points and two wins, while Togo is at No. 4 with three points and
zero wins in Group-D.
Rwanda was able to dominate Togo mainly with their excellent field goal and charity stripe shooting that remained 47.8 percent and 66.7 percent respectively in comparison to Togo’s 42.4 and 61.1 percent hitting.
Rwanda tipped off belligerently and stunned Togo with their brisk attack straight away. Initially Togo showed some deterrence, but failed to hang on to it. Rwanda outscored Togo with a 27-8 spurt in order to seize the first quarter
in their favour.
The one way traffic continued in the second quarter as well, as Rwanda’s offense kept finding inroads in the fragile defence of Togo. By the time second quarter came to an end, Rwanda was able to solidify their lead by adding 24
more points to their first quarter score, while also kept Togo under check on the other side. As the teams went into the lockers, Rwanda was leading Togo by 51-18.
Togo which looked completely down and under in the first half, came out of the lockers into 33 point deficit, did little better offensively in the third quarter, as there scoring total touched the double-digit mark for the first
time in the entire game. However, it was not impressive enough to impinge on the efforts of Rwanda, which once again secured a quarter in their favour with a 72-41 advantage.
With a lead over 30 points, Rwanda instead of going for the kill, fell relaxed and gave the opportunity to Togo to comeback in the game. Togo did exactly that they made the possession and kept driving to rival’s post consistently
to notch the lead down. However, Rwanda’s first half lead proved a too high mountain for Togo to climb up and their late charge didn’t trouble the opposition much.
When the final buzzer rang, team Rwanda was still 20 points ahead of Togo, registering a comprehensive victory in their account.
Kenneth Gasana remained the top scorer of the game. He tallied game-high 19 points along with nine assists, two rebounds and two steals. Gasana took 33 minutes to hit two of two from the free throw line, three of six from the three-point
range and seven of 15 from the field.
Team-mate Robert Thomson helped the cause by pouring in 18 points, six rebounds, two assists and two steals.
Fatarh Damtare and Komi Ayayi scored 12 points each for Togo. Messan Doe-Bruce was the third leading scorer for Togo; he made 11 points and clutched three rebounds.
Tags: