Tuesday, March 14
Result
REG 80-73 ABC Fighters
The American point guard Adonis Filer starred with a game high 25 points to power REG to a 80-73 hard fourth victory over Ivorian club ABC Fighters late Tuesday night at the ongoing BAL 2023 Sahara conference regular season in Dakar Arena.
It was REG’s second win in the Sahara Conference, while ABC dropped to 1-1.
Filer did a bit of everything to inspire the Rwandan champions.
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From making stops on the defensive end, to shooting 8-for-17 to earning 25 points, with 4 rebounds and 6 assists, Filer earned the man-of-the-match recognition.
Two of his 3-pointers in the third quarter ignited REG to a 16-0 run (57-52), which turned out as the game-changing moment for the Kigali-based team.
Although Stephane Konate’s three-pointer cut the gap to 57-55, ABC again took the lead (60-59) midway through the fourth quarter. It was a short-lived run for the Ivorian champions who struggled to find answers to REG’s scoring runs later in the fourth quarter.
The Kigali-based team headed to the fourth quarter leading 63-62, keeping their playoff aspirations alive.
"We knew if we kept our positivity and shared the ball we could bring the game in our favour, and that’s what gave us this win,” said REG shooting guard, Dieudonne Ndizeye, who contributed 10 points.
"Am happy for this second win. But there remain three important games to play. Our focus right now is AS Douanes.”
Their next opponent, Association Sportive des Douanes (AS Douanes), is a Senegalese basketball club from Dakar.
The Rwandan side which has won the national championship thrice, in 2017, 2021 and 2022, will return to action on Wednesday, March 15, against hosts AS Douanes.
The latter desperately need to bounce back after a loss on the opening night, while ABC take on defending champions US Monastir on Thursday, March 17.
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Don Robinson Jr, the ABC guard Don Robinson Jr who finished with 9 points, 5 rebounds and 2 assists, said: "They are a good team. They had their runs and we couldn’t answer, especially in the third quarter.”
"We didn’t make a lot of the shots that we usually hit. We just need to get there, get rebounds and try to win the next game.”
With four ABC starters (Harouna, Chris Obekpa, Don Robinson Jr and Mike Fofana) combining for 30 points, the ABC bench needed to intervene, contributing 27 points, 11 more than REG’s.