Don Délice Ndikumana
The new 16 teams-format Viva Basketball League opening tournament has been wrapped up with Urunani proving again their domination in Burundian. In fact, a huge gap between teams was undeniably noticed.
Ahead of the 2023 VBL season, an opening tournament was organized to give the teams a ground to weigh themselves against others, and a taste of what the coming season will look like. Six new teams were added to the league in order to extend the number of participants from ten, as it was in the previous league, to sixteen.
This tournament, the third one since the start of the new year showed new energy and great ambition to win from the teams. In a remarkable feat, Dynamo set a new single match score record during their first round game against Mutanga United, triumphantly dropping 153 points against their opponent’s 41.
he start of this year, showed
Urunani and Gymkhana Competed Once More in Highly-Anticipated Final Showdown
Gymkhana started the tournament with an impressive victory over Muzinga BBC, scoring 91 points against 51, helped by their new recruit Denis Balungu from the Ugandan franchise KIU Titans and Clement Kongolo. They went up to the quarter and semifinals eliminating Remesha and Les Hippos, respectively.They qualified for the finals joining Urunani. This was the second final that opposes the two after the january’s VBL Playoff finals that Urunani won against Gymkhana. The notable most tough game that Urunani played in this tournament was against their rival Dynamo in the semis. They stepped over their all-time rivals with a 68-60 score.
During the final game, Urunani and Gymkhana gave an intense show with the score tied to 31 points at half time. Three minutes to the end of the game, the race towards the trophy was still on as the score was still tied on 57 points. Urunani managed to take advantage of its reinforced bench that helped it to dig a 9 points difference, ending the game with a score of 68-59.
Urunani seems to gather all the silverware they meet on their way. With this one, they win their second trophy in 2023, after reaching in 3 finals among which their only failure to rise high a cup was when they got defeated by Remesha BBC in the Nani Mkali 2023 tournament, early this month.
Next season’s doubt
Although certain teams performed a great show, giving us great expectations for the upcoming VBL 2023, the scale measuring the level and competitivity of teams considerably bows on one side, the side of big teams mostly from Bujumbura as 6 out of 8 that reached the quarter finals were all from Bujumbura. This could announce an unbalanced season, which might be tough and complicated for teams from provinces to stand before these giants, especially the newcomers in the league. Nevertheless, since this is the second year with a national basketball league that includes teams from different provinces is organized, there are still improvements that are being made. Let’s see how the season unfolds.
