{"id":42721,"date":"2023-05-24T17:17:29","date_gmt":"2023-05-24T17:17:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/bal-2023-who-heads-to-the-final"},"modified":"2023-05-24T17:55:44","modified_gmt":"2023-05-24T17:55:44","slug":"bal-2023-who-heads-to-the-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/bal-2023-who-heads-to-the-final","title":{"rendered":"BAL 2023: Who heads to the final?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Rwanda. <\/strong><\/span>Wednesday<\/p>\n

Petro de Luanda Vs AS Douanes 5pm (BK Arena)<\/p>\n

Al Ahly Vs Stade Malien 8:30 pm (BK Arena)<\/p>\n

Rwanda Energy Group(REG), Abidjan Basket Club, Clube Ferroviario da Beira and Cape Town Tigers had their dream of the 2023 Basketball Africa League (BAL) championship cut short following early elimination from the quarterfinals over the weekend.<\/p>\n

The championship is now between four semifinalists from which finalists will be decided on Wednesday at BK Arena.<\/p>\n

Title favorites Petro de Luanda face Senegalese powerhouse AS Douanes in the first semi-final game at 5pm.<\/p>\n

The Angolan and Nile Conference champions will be looking to beat their Senegalese rivals to not only book a ticket to the final but to also finish the campaign unbeaten.<\/p>\n

While AS Douanes marched into the semi-finals after putting up an emphatic 93-73 win over Mozambique\u2019s Clube Ferrovia\u0301rio da Beira on Saturday Petro de Luanda were not sure of reaching the last four until they inflicted an 88-84 defeat on ABC Fighters in the final seconds in what is arguably regarded as the game of the BAL Playoffs so far.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere Malian powerhouse Stade Malien became the first team to reach the BAL semifinals following Saturday\u2019s 78-69 quarter final victory over South Africa\u2019s Cape Town Tigers.<\/p>\n

The Sahara Conference champions will face Egyptian giants Al Ahly who beat REG 94-77 despite the latter playing before a sold out home crowd.<\/p>\n

Since the end of the Conference games in early May, two teams, Al Ahly and Petro de Luanda have been projected as favorites to fight for the 2023 BAL title.<\/p>\n

And, with four games left in the season, there hasn\u2019t been any surprises as the two title contenders remained locked up for what would be their first championship since the tournament\u2019s inception in 2021.<\/p>\n

Petro de Luanda head coach Pedro Neto made it clear that his team is in Kigali to win the championship.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are here to win. The team never at any point thought it was losing the game,\u201d Neto said after knocking ABC Fighters.<\/p>\n

Like Petro, Al Ahly want the trophy and they don\u2019t care whether they are debutants in the tournament.<\/p>\n

Pundits and basketball enthusiasts are predicting an all-Nile Conference final given the on-court swagger and hunger of glory that the pair showed in the quarterfinals.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is Al Ahly and Petro in the final. In them, we witnessed pure basketball last weekend. We want to see a rematch after that show in Cairo during the Nile Conference,\u201d said Sabine Umutoni, a basketball fan.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be a perfect matchup the majority of basketball fans want to watch on Saturday,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

But don\u2019t write off Sahara Conference giants!<\/p>\n

Neither AS Douanes nor Stade Malien reached this stage by chance.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are going to the semifinals, but the championship is exactly why we came here to support AS Douanes,\u201d said a Senegalese supporter who traveled with the Senegalese champions to the Kigali playoffs.<\/p>\n

In Wednesday\u2019s semifinals, expect class and pure basketball and only the best will advance to the final.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Rwanda<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Rwanda. Wednesday Petro de Luanda Vs AS Douanes 5pm (BK Arena) Al Ahly Vs Stade Malien 8:30 pm (BK Arena) Rwanda Energy Group(REG), Abidjan Basket Club, Clube Ferroviario da Beira and Cape Town Tigers had their dream of the 2023 Basketball Africa League (BAL) championship cut short following early elimination from the quarterfinals […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":42720,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,18],"tags":[760,763,758],"class_list":["post-42721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-sport","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-rwanda","tag-rwanda"],"yoast_head":"\nBAL 2023: Who heads to the final? - Rwanda<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Wednesday Petro de Luanda Vs AS Douanes 5pm (BK Arena) Al Ahly Vs Stade Malien 8:30 pm (BK Arena) Rwanda Energy Group ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/bal-2023-who-heads-to-the-final\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"BAL 2023: Who heads to the final?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Wednesday Petro de Luanda Vs AS Douanes 5pm (BK Arena) Al Ahly Vs Stade Malien 8:30 pm (BK Arena) Rwanda Energy Group ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/bal-2023-who-heads-to-the-final\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Rwanda\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-05-24T17:17:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-05-24T17:55:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2023\/05\/sm_1684938217.618092.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"579\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/bal-2023-who-heads-to-the-final#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/bal-2023-who-heads-to-the-final\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"BAL 2023: Who heads to the final?\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-05-24T17:17:29+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-05-24T17:55:44+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/bal-2023-who-heads-to-the-final\"},\"wordCount\":528,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/bal-2023-who-heads-to-the-final#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2023\/05\/sm_1684938217.618092.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Rwanda\",\"Rwanda\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/bal-2023-who-heads-to-the-final#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/bal-2023-who-heads-to-the-final\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/bal-2023-who-heads-to-the-final\",\"name\":\"BAL 2023: Who heads to the final? 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