The Basketball Africa League (BAL) 2024 Sahara Conference that concluded Sunday, May 12, in Dakar, Senegal, saw three out of four teams securing their tickets to the playoffs and finals that will unfold in Kigali from May 24 - June 1. For the first time, the playoffs will be held without a representative from Rwanda despite them hosting for a fourth successive year. APR basketball club players and coaches will be watching the playoffs and finals from the stands after failing to make it past the Conference regular season since BAL’s inception in 2021. Times Sport’s Damas Sikubwabo captured the action-packed regular season games live from the Dakar Arena and, here, he brings you six things that stood out during the entertaining elite club basketball showpiece Rivers Hoopers win the 2024 Sahara Conference Rivers Hoopers won the 2024 Sahara Conference with a 4-2 mark, becoming the first Nigerian side to advance to the postseason. ALSO READ: BAL 2024: AS Douanes end APR’s playoffs hopes In their BAL debut in 2021, The King’s Men finished with a 1-2 record, but this time around the Port Harcourt-based team outclassed their opponents with an impressive style of play. No Rwandan team in the playoffs Rwanda's APR, who saw two of their pivotal players Adonis Filer and Obadiah Noel, miss their two decisive games due to injury, closed their Sahara Conference with a 2-4 mark. This is the first time in the league history that Rwanda won’t have a team in the playoffs. ALSO READ: Adonis Filer faces 8 months out through Achilles tendon injury Patriots basketball club and Rwanda Energy Groups (REG) carried the Rwandan flag in the first three editions of the Pan-African basketball league but, to the surprise of many, APR weren’t good enough to qualify. Overtime games The race for the three playoffs spots was so intense that only four of the twelve conference games registered double-digit winning margins. And the four team’s tenacity to extend their season beyond May 12 was better illustrated in the conference opener when APR overcame US Monastir 89-84 in the first overtime game since 2022. A week later, on May 11, Rivers Hoopers beat APR 78-71 in the first double-overtime game in BAL history. US Monastir’s remarkable comeback The BAL 2022 champions were on the brink of elimination from the Sahara conference after going three consecutive games without a single win. But, in a turn of events, US Monastir won the last three games to advance to the playoffs. No other team in the competition’s history has ever fought a 0-3 deficit to finish 3-3 and advance on to the postseason. Monastir advanced to the playoffs as one of the two best third-place ranked teams in the conference games. Top Performers There were a number of top individual performances throughout the nine-day event, but some were so impactful that their names will forever be associated with the 2024 Sahara Conference. Obadiah Noel may have been sidelined for the last two games of the conference after picking up a hamstring injury but his buzzer beater three-pointer that saw APR upset US Monastir 89-84 in overtime is undeniably a moment to remember. On the other side, athletically gifted Rivers Hoopers’ Devine Eke came out balling from the first to the last game of the Sahara Conference. Eke finished as the only player to record three double-doubles in six conference games. One to watch out for in Kigali.
