The 2024 Basketball Africa League (BAL) playoffs tipped off at Kigali’s BK Arena, on Friday night, in the Rwandan capital.
This is as Libya’s Al Ahly Ly defeated South Africa’s Cape Town Tigers 87-76.
Also, Morocco’s FUS Rabat beat the defending champion Egypt’s Al Ahly 89-78 in their seeding games.
Robert Golden led Al Ahly Ly with 21 points, four rebounds and nine assists, with Majok Deng. They added 18 points, three rebounds and six assists.
Al Ahly Ly dominated the game offensively converting 49.3 per cent of their shots, outrebounded the Tigers 53-36.
This is despite recording 20 turnovers on the postseason’s opening night.
The Tigers could not find their rhythm throughout long stretches of the game.
Dieu Deng led the Tigers (21 points and five rebounds) and Samkelo Cele (16 points assists and five assists). They shot 35 and 33 per cent from the floor, respectively.
Meanwhile, in the second game, the 2023 BAL Defensive Player of the Year, Aliou Diarra got 21 points and 10 rebounds.
Kendrick Brown added 20 points and five assists, while FUS Rabat made a statement winning their seeding matchup against the reigning champion.
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The scoreline was close throughout the first three quarters, but FUS took care of business in the fourth, outscoring their rivals 31-14 in the last 10 minutes.
Mark Lyons led Al Ahly with 20 points and Patrick Gardner with 12 points and five rebounds.
Friday night’s seeding games set up Sunday’s quarterfinal matchups. While Al Ahly Ly will face Al Ahly at 2.30 p.m. (CAT), FUS Rabat will take on the Cape Town Tigers at 5.30 p.m. (CAT).
The seeding games returned to BK Arena Saturday afternoon with Angola’s Petro de Luanda facing Tunisia’s US Monastir at 2.30 p.m.
Also, Nigeria’s Rivers Hoopers are taking on Senegal’s AS Douanes at 5.30 p.m.
The 2024 BAL season is reaching fans in 214 countries and territories in 17 languages through free-to-air and paid TV broadcast partnerships.
The partners include the African Union of Broadcasting, American Forces Network (AFN), Canal+, NBA TV, SuperSport and Tencent Video.
Others are TSN, TV5 Monde, Visionary TV and Voice of America (VOA).
The league is live streaming on the NBA App, NBA.com and the BAL’s YouTube channel.
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