Saturday, May 25
US Monastir 70-67 Petro de Luanda
AS Douanes 63-57 Rivers Hoopers
Senegal's AS Douanes overcame Nigeria's Rivers Hoopers 63-57 in Saturday night’s classification round game of the Basketball Africa League (BAL) 2024 playoffs which are underway at BK Arena.
The Nigerian champions lost by a single digit but the scoring gap could have been even larger as they trailed by as many as 22 points at the end of the third quarter.
Hoopers guard Kelvin Amayo scored the first two points of the game for their only lead but his side struggled to keep up with AS Douanes’ fast-paced game ever since.
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The Nigerians were nowhere near the team that took the 2024 Sahara Conference by storm, winning it with an impressive 4-2 mark.
For most of the first three quarters, the game was a one-sided affair as nothing worked out for the Port Harcourt-based team. And this became clearer in the third quarter where they shot 1-for-13.
And, being outscored 13-5 ahead of the final quarter was the last straw for Hoopers head coach Ogoh Odaudu who made a bold decision of sitting out his starting line-up.
Then, his bench took over, forcing AS Douanes to rethink their strategy.
The Hoopers reserves outscored the Senegalese rivals 14-0 in the last ten minutes. And, when Johnson Anaiye scored a mid-range jumper that cut the gap to 61-57 with 25 seconds left, the 2023 BAL runners-up recalled its starting line-up, but the damage was already done for the Hoopers.
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Devine Eke, the only Hoopers player to score in double digits, finished with 11 points.
The Hoopers out-rebounded AS Douanes 56-48, but turning the ball over 21 times in the first three quarters – they had one more turnover in the fourth quarter – was too detrimental.
Abdoulaye Harouna led the AS Douanes with a game-high of 16 points and Maduc Akec added 13.
AS Douanes and Rivers Hoopers head to the quarter-finals with a 4-3 mark each.