RSSB Tigers became the first Rwandan team to reach the Basketball African League (BAL) Final after beating Al Ahly of Egypt 106-97 on Wednesday night at the BK Arena.
Malian big man Oumar Ballo played his best game of the payoffs, netting an efficient 20 points off the bench and dominating the glass, pulling down a game-high 17 rebounds. Teafale Lenard Jr returned to action with 19 points and 7 rebounds, while Craig Randall II had a team-high 30 points, with Antino Jackson Jr contributing 13 points and dropping a game-high 7 dimes.
Zac Lofton poured in a game-high 36 points in a losing effort for Al Ahly. Kevin Murphy had 24 points while star forward Nuni Omot battled to 16 points.
In the finals, RSSB Tigers will take on the winner between Petro de Luanda and Al Ahly Libya, who face off on Thursday evening.
How the game unfolded
Many thought the clash between Al Ahly and RSSB Tigers was always going to be a battle between half-court set basketball and transition basketball of pace, space and shooting.
Al Ahly prefer running half-court sets for forty minutes while the Tigers favour a high transition style of play with lots of shooting from their guards and wings.
However, Henry Mwinuka and his coaching staff at RSSB Tigers switched things up a little bit and played big for the majority of the game with big boys Mangok Mathiang and Ballo logging 30 minutes. The return of Lenard Jr meant the Tigers had their best front court.
On the other hand, Pantelis Gavriel went a little small with Ehab Amin and Osayi Osifo replacing Murphy and Omar Oraby in the starting lineup to possibly keep up with the Tigers’ fast-paced game.
Al Ahly controlled the early stages of the opening quarter of the game, but it ended even at 24. The Tigers went ahead in the second quarter, leading by as many as 10 points. While Randall drew all the defensive attention at the top, the wings were left open, and Axel Mpoyo had room to drop a couple of wide-open treys, and Ballo had a lot of room to glide in the paint for slam dunks. However, Al Ahly closed out the quarter with a 12-2 run, thanks largely to Murphy, who had a superb first half.
In the high-scoring third quarter, the Tigers used an 18–10 scoring run in the first five minutes to open up an eight-point lead, but Lofton started to heat up from 3-point range and had an answer for every run that the RSSB put together.
Al Ahly kept the game close early in the fourth quarter, but the home side built a double-digit lead midway through the period as Al Ahly’s offence dried up a bit.
