Africa-Press – Rwanda. APR head coach James Maye Jr. was happy to see his star center Aliou Diarra return to action he wasn’t able to make an impact enough to prevent his team lose 106-102 to Nile Conference leaders Al Ahli in Saturday’s Day 5 encounter.
Diarra had missed APR’s clash against Al Ahli in the first round of the conference games. He was also not fit in time to play against South Africa’s Made By Basketball on Thursday. APR lost both games in his absence.
However, even on his return, his 10 points and five rebounds in 27 minutes weren’t enough to cause an upset against the Libyan champions who are unbeaten in their last five outings.
“Although he didn’t get much time to recover from the injury, today he gave his 100 percent, no doubt. We didn’t see many dunks from him, but he’s a guy that doesn’t want to come off the court,” Maye Jr. said.
APR are one win away from qualifying for the BAL Playoffs which will take place in Pretoria, South Africa in June and Maye has nothing in his mind but beating Nairobi City Thunder (NCT) to make prevent last season’s failure from repeating itself.
“I think we’re playing good basketball, and what we want to do is qualify for the finals, and we know that Nairobi are thinking the same, so it’s our job to do it,” he concluded.
Sunday, May 25
Al Ahli SC Vs MBB
NCTA Vs PR
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