Tuesday, May 7
APR 66-61 AS Douanes
Rivers Hoopers 84-63 US Monastir
Star guard Obadiah Noel starred again with a game high 24 points to power APR to a 66-61 hard fought victory over Senegal’s AS Douanes on Tuesday night to improve to a 2-1win ratio at the BAL 2024 Sahara Conference regular season going on at the Dakar Arena.
The American has been Mazen Trakh’s main man at the Conference games in Dakar and he proved it again when APR defied the odds and silenced Doaunes’ home crowd to take home the win, the second in their last three matches.
Adonis Filer was another APR player to score in double digits, contributing 10 to the army side’s score.
It was a closely-contested matchup that could have gone either way as the 16 lead changes showed.
Despite making 21 turnovers, APR’s 44 rebounds against AS Douanes’ 36 minimized their damage as the Rwandan champions prevailed 66-61.
APR forward Axel Mpoyo, who contributed 8 points, later shed light on how they pulled off their second win in the Sahara Conference.
BAL 2024: APR "ready for the challenge” vs AS Douanes-Trakh
"We knew from the beginning it was going to be a fight because they are a very physical team and we needed to come and play hard,” Mpoyo said.
Jean Jacques Boissy, the only AS Douanes to score in double digits, finished with 14 points, Adama Diakhite added 9 off the bench while Ibrahima Thomas, Abdoulaye Harouna and Mike Fofana, contributed 8 points apiece in the losing cause.
Neither team managed a double-digits lead in the nerve-racking clash.
Mpoyo admits they experienced ups and downs in the low-scoring game because of "a little lack of concentration at the end with the turnovers, but we needed to be more solid with the ball, especially towards the end of the game. That’s something we need to clean up for sure.”
After losing to Rivers Hoopers (86-82), APR knew they would need to bounce back to keep their playoff aspirations alive.
The game was so intense that, with 32 seconds on the clock, the officiating team needed approximately five minutes to review an incident that resulted in a double technical foul for Noel and Ibrahima Thomas.
With APR leading 60-59 in the waning seconds of the game, the final score was determined from charity stripe as both teams were on foul limits.
With the win over US Monastir, Rivers Hoopers finished their first round of the 2024 Sahara Conference as the only team without a defeat.