Africa-Press – Rwanda. APR Basketball Club’s star forward Nuni Omot has said that his goal and that of the team is to win the Basketball Africa League (BAL) 2025 title.
He made the remarks after APR’s emphatic 104-73 win against Nigeria’s Rivers Hoopers in the quarter-finals of the BAL playoffs in Pretoria, South Africa.
Now APR has advanced to the semi-finals for the first time, where it will meet with Libyan giants Al Ahli Tripoli on Wednesday.
“Obviously, my goal and everyone else’s goal is to win the championship but we just have to take it game by game,” Omot said in an interview after the Rivers Hoopers game.
The South Sudanese player also praised his teammates for how they are behaving on and off the court.
“It is a great group of guys, great coaching staff; everybody from the top to the bottom has been phenomenal since I have been here. I can’t ask for anything else,” he noted.
The 30-year-old forward, considered one of the top players on the continent, joined APR last month ahead of the playoffs.
Omot plays professional basketball for the Beijing Ducks in China’s top-tier league, the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA). An experienced player, he has competed in the U.S., Asia, Africa, and elsewhere.
He is also a key player for South Sudan’s national team, widely regarded as the best in Africa at the moment. He played a pivotal role in South Sudan’s near-upset of the U.S. national team in a 2024 friendly game, narrowly losing 100-101. He also helped lead the team to its first-ever Olympic qualification for Paris 2024.
Omot played college basketball for the Baylor Bears after stints at Concordia University and Indian Hills Community College. His standout career includes an MVP season in the BAL with Egyptian giants Al Ahly.
Talking about the addition of Omot, APR’s head coach James Maye Jr. described it as a “very important” one for the team. He described him as a guy that can score and also control the team’s pace to avoid “sporadic” tendencies that showed up during some games in the Nile Conference.
“Sometimes you need to have somebody to help balance that. We think Nuni does that,” he noted.
The Nile Conference, he said, gave them a number of lessons in terms of injury management, how to fight adversity, and being flexible.
“We learned some things about ourselves and about our players on both ends of the court, and then we have been able to take time to be able to correct it,” he pointed out.
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