Africa-Press – Rwanda. The eight teams bound for the 2025 Basketball Africa League (BAL) playoffs are gearing up to tussle it out in Pretoria, South Africa, between June 6-14 to establish this year’s champion.
Rwandan representatives APR are among the teams that qualified for the playoffs, alongside usual suspects like Petro de Luanda, US Monastir and more.
In this article, Times Sport takes a look at the teams which made it to the playoffs.
APR (Rwanda)
The Rwandan champions are the only team from the East African region that qualified for the playoffs, after Kenya’s Nairobi City Thunder (NCT) were eliminated at the conference stage.
After falling short of postseason qualification in the 2024 BAL campaign, the Lions faced tough competition in the 2025 edition from Al Ahli Tripoli, Nairobi City Thunder, and MBB on their home court, the BK Arena.
They had to wait until the final seconds of their last game in the 2025 Nile Conference to defeat NCT 77-74, sending the packed BK Arena into a frenzy.
Obadiah Noel played the role of local hero, hitting the game-winning three-pointer with less than four seconds left.
The team recently added South Sudanese star forward Nuni Omot to its roster that already has big players like NBA G League guards Noel and Chasson Randle.
Al Ahli Tripoli (Libya)
The Libyan champions stormed the 2025 Nile Conference in Kigali, winning all their games.
Al Ahli Tripoli beat all three opponents by an average of 17.5 points per game, scoring over 100 points in four of their six games.
Throughout the tournament, Al Ahli Tripoli only trailed by more than eight points once, but they fought back from a nine-point deficit to beat APR 90-68.
They went on to achieve a 47-point lead against Nairobi City Thunder, the largest advantage by any team this season in the three conferences’ 36 games.
In addition to their perfect 6-0 record in the Nile Conference, BAL newcomer Al Ahli finished with a 7-0 record in the Road to BAL qualifiers in November 2024.
Al Ahli finished with the best point differential among all eight playoff teams and are seeded as the No. 1 team before the postseason begins next week at the iconic SunBet Arena in Pretoria.
Al Ahli Tripoli set a BAL record for the most points scored in a game by beating Nairobi City Thunder 117-87. They also set a season record by making 20 three-pointers in the same game.
Al Ittihad Alexandria
Like Al Ahli Tripoli, Al Ittihad Alexandria also won all six of their Kalahari Conference games, beating their opponents by an average of 16 points.
They reached the 100-point mark on one occasion, beating Rivers Hoopers 100-80, and their closest win was a three-point victory (72-69) against Stade Malien, a game in which they came back from a 12-point deficit.
Al Ittihad Alexandria is a high-scoring team that makes three-point shooting one of their lethal assets.
They finished with 13, 14, and 17 three-pointers in three of their six games in the Kalahari Conference.
Their largest winning margin was a 98-74 victory against FUS Rabat on the last day of the 2025 Kalahari Conference.
US Monastir
The 2022 BAL champions got off to a slow start in the 2025 Sahara Conference, losing to the hosts, ASC Ville de Dakar, 70–67 on opening day.
However, US Monastir finished strong, beating ASC Ville de Dakar 77-68 on the last day of the conference in front of a rowdy home crowd.
Their second-day victory over the reigning BAL champions, Petro de Luanda, 87-73, was everything they needed to make a statement.
US Monastir recorded their largest winning margin by beating Kriol Star 88-72.
Before Al Ahli Tripoli eclipsed their record of three points in a game with 20, US Monastir boasted the most three-pointers (17) early in the regular season.
The Tunisian powerhouses scored an average of 80 points while allowing an average of 74 points per game.
Kriol Star was the only team US Monastir beat twice, finishing with an overall record of 4–2 in the conference.
Rivers Hoopers
The Rivers Hoopers started their 2025 BAL campaign the same way they finished the 2024 season: with a win.
After defeating the Cape Town Tigers in the 2024 BAL Third-Place Game in Kigali, the Hoopers beat Stade Malien 81-60 in the opening game of the 2025 BAL season in Rabat, Morocco.
They beat the hosts, FUS Rabat, and Stade Malien twice, but lost twice to the eventual Kalahari Conference winners, Al Ittihad Alexandria, to finish with a 4-2 record ahead of the playoffs.
Petro de Luanda
For the second consecutive season, Petro de Luanda concluded their conference campaign with a 50% success rate.
Last year, the Angolan champions finished 2-2 in the Kalahari Conference in Pretoria, South Africa. Earlier this month in Dakar, Senegal, they finished 3-3.
In the Senegalese capital, the BAL reigning champions faced tough competition night after night, losing to two BAL debutants at least once.
First, they fell short against the 2025 Sahara Conference hosts, ASC Ville de Dakar, with a final score of 65-64, and then lost to Kriol Star in overtime with a final score of 71-69.
Petro de Luanda won and lost once against US Monastir, Kriol Star, and ASC Ville de Dakar.
Kriol Star
Cape Verdeans are known around the world for their resilient spirit, and Kriol Star lived up to the expectations of their countrymen and women during the 2025 Sahara Conference.
Although they lost twice to US Monastir, Kriol Star saved their best for last, stunning the BAL reigning champions, Petro de Luanda, 71-69 in overtime when few saw it coming.
Facing elimination, Kriol Star used a zone defense for most of the game and led Petro de Luanda by as many as 26 points at one point.
Petro de Luanda rallied to take a short-lived two-point lead. However, it was unsung hero Lewis Igho Uwo, a BAL Elevate player, who sent Kriol Star to the playoffs by scoring the winning tap-in.
Kriol Star is the only team in BAL history to win two games in overtime in the same season.
FUS Rabat
For any team, starting a BAL conference as hosts with a 0-2 record is probably a worst-case scenario, but FUS Rabat fans never turned their backs on their heroes; showed up to every game religiously.
Thanks to two wins over Stade Malien and a better point differential than MBB, who also finished with a 2-4 record, FUS Rabat secured their second consecutive postseason berth.
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