Africa-Press – Rwanda. Saturday, May 11
APR 71-78 Rivers Hoopers
US Monastir 75-69 AS Douanes
APR Basketball club’s hopes of progressing to the Basketball Africa League (BAL) 2024 playoffs in Kigali hang in the balance following Saturday’s 71-78 loss to Nigeria’s Rivers Hoopers in Sahara Conference going on at the Dakar Arena.
The army side’s loss against the Nigerians, which they suffered after two overtimes, was their third in their past five conference games overall, hence finding themselves in third position with on game to play.
The game went to the first overtime (58-58) before the Hoopers outscored APR 13-6 in the final five minutes to become not only the first Nigerian side to reach BAL playoffs since its inception in 2021.
The King’s Men were also the first Sahara Conference team to qualify for the 2024 playoffs scheduled to take place later in May in Kigali.
APR started the game with a relatively new line-up with Jean Jacques Wilson stepping in for Williams Robeyns, but they ended up needing deeper changes as the game progressed.
Point guard Obadiah Noel, who scored the opening 2 points, limped off the court four minutes into game due to an injury. And, to make matters worse for the Rwandan champions, Adonis Filer was also stretchered off by the emergency services to receive medical treatment. The duo, who have so far been Mazen Trakh’s key men in his team, never returned to the game.
APR had their toughest game in Dakar and dropped to 2-3-win ratio ahead of the last day of the Sahara Conference on Sunday where they will face home side AS Douanes while qualified Rivers Hoopers will go up against US Monastir.
Rwanda’s Clare Akamanzi, CEO NBA Africa, attending the game between APR and Rivers Hoopers in Dakar, Senegal.
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