The 2024 Basketball Africa League (BAL) Playoffs got underway at Kigali's BK Arena last night with the victories of Morocco's FUS Rabat over Egypt's Al Ahly, the reigning champion, 89-78, and Libya's Al Ahly Ly over South Africa's Cape Town Tigers, 87-76.Majok Deng added 18 points, three rebounds, and six assists, while Robert Golden lead Al Ahly Ly with 21 points, four rebounds, and nine assists. Despite committing 20 turnovers on the first night of the postseason, Al Ahly Ly outrebounded the Tigers 53–36 and dominated the game offensively, making 49.3 percent of their baskets.
Throughout significant portions of the game, the Tigers were unable to establish a rhythm. Dieu Deng (21 points, 5 rebounds) and Samkelo Cele (16 points, 5 assists), who shot 35 and 33 percent from the field, respectively, were their main leaders.
In the meantime, FUS Rabat made a statement by defeating the defending champion in the second game of the evening. 2023 BAL Defensive Player of the Year Aliou Diarra scored 21 points and pulled down 10 rebounds, while Kendrick Brown chipped in with 20 points and five assists. The first three quarters saw a close scoreboard, but in the fourth, FUS dominated, outscoring their opponents 31-14 in the final ten minutes.
Mark Lyons (20 points) and Patrick Gardner (12 points, five rebounds) lead Al Ahly.
The quarterfinal matches on Sunday are set by last night's seeding games: FUS Rabat will play Cape Town Tigers at 5:30 p.m. CAT, while Al Ahly Ly will play Al Ahly at 2:30 p.m. CAT.
This afternoon, the seeding matches will resume at BK Arena. At 2:30 p.m. CAT, Angola's Petro de Luanda will play Tunisia's US Monastir, and at 5:30 p.m. CAT, Nigeria's Rivers Hoopers will play Senegal's AS Douanes.
The quarterfinal matches on Sunday are set by last night's seeding games: FUS Rabat will play Cape Town Tigers at 5:30 p.m. CAT, while Al Ahly Ly will play Al Ahly at 2:30 p.m. CAT.
This afternoon, the seeding matches will resume at BK Arena. At 2:30 p.m. CAT, Angola's Petro de Luanda will play Tunisia's US Monastir, and at 5:30 p.m. CAT, Nigeria's Rivers Hoopers will play Senegal's AS Douanes.
The 2024 NBA season is being streamed live on the NBA App, NBA.com, BAL.NBA.com, and the BAL's YouTube channel. Fans can watch the season in 214 countries and territories in 17 languages thanks to free-to-air and paid TV broadcast partnerships with the African Union of Broadcasting, American Forces Network (AFN), Canal+, NBA TV, SuperSport, Tencent Video, TSN, TV5 Monde, Visionary TV, and Voice of America (VOA).
On behalf of Basketball Africa League (BAL), distributed by APO Group.
On behalf of Basketball Africa League (BAL), distributed by APO Group.