DAKAR, Senegal – Defending BAL champions Petro de Luanda beat Sahara Conference hosts ASC Ville de Dakar (ASCVD) 76-67 to head into Sunday’s decisive fixtures almost assured of progression to June’s playoffs in Pretoria.
All four teams in the Sahara Conference had headed into the weekend tied on two wins out of four games, with only two matches each to go. Only the top two will automatically qualify for June’s playoffs in South Africa, while the third-placed team will qualify if they have a better regular season record than at least one of the third-placed teams in the other two conferences.
FUS Rabat finished third in the Kalahari Conference on home soil last month, while the Nile Conference in Kigali is set to take place from May 17-25.
US Monastir beat Kriol Star 91-83 in Saturday’s early tip-off, meaning that they have one foot in the playoffs even with all possibilities still technically on the table heading into Sunday for all four teams.
The first quarter in the late tip-off was a topsy-turvy affair, with Petro and ASCVD exchanging scoring runs from the first buzzer. Glofate Buiamba led the way in the early stages for Petro with 10 first-quarter points as the defending champions eventually took a 25-18 lead heading into the break. Will Perry landed some big shots at the other end, with Ater Majok typically impressive at both ends.
The drums continued to beat inside Dakar Arena, but the crowd and the ASCVD players began to grow restless as they were outclassed in the second quarter. Tensions spilled over as Makhtar Gueye exchanged heated words with some of his opponents and Dakar struggled to find answers to veteran guard Solo Diabaté in full flow. Petro went into half-time 47-32 to the good.
ASCVD started the second half well with a 7-0 run, but Petro found their rhythm before the hosts could truly get the crowd in full voice. Petro embarked on a 7-0 run themselves.
Up stepped Samba Dali Fall with back-to-back threes and now, the crowd really was starting to believe. However, Rigoberto Mendoza hit a three at the other end to stop the run. With Mendoza on a tear in the third quarter, there was little the hosts could do to claw back significant ground.
As ever, the tenacious Perry still tried his best, hitting a three, and Majok followed up with a trademark dunk, with another from Gueye coming right afterwards as Mendoza gave the ball away. The rest of the quarter saw back-and-forth action.
Heading into the final quarter, ASCVD were just about hanging in the fight, but Petro still held a significant 63-54 lead. Majok started the fourth quarter with a dunk to cut the lead to seven, but then Childe Dundão responded with a two-point layup at the other end.
ASCVD went on a six-point run and by then, any doubt the crowd had regarding potential for a comeback had been eased.
After a Yanick Moreira free throw stretched the lead to six, Gueye came within inches of a dunk which could have cut it to four points. However, moments later, Perry slipped and Diabaté was in for the dunk.
Perry’s composure from the free-throw line reduced the deficit back to five points halfway through the quarter. All was still to play for at 68-63.
Petro were not at their best offensively, but they ran the clock down and managed the crowd well.
Heading into the final round of fixtures on Sunday, Monastir top the Sahara Conference with Petro second. Both teams have three wins, but in the case of a two-way tie between teams in the conference rankings, head-to-head records will be the tiebreaker.
In the case of a four-way tie, points difference will be the decider. Monastir and Petro each beat each other once in the conference, but Monastir have a points difference of +4 across the two encounters.
Given Monastir’s overall points difference of +25 and Petro’s of +33, it would take a catastrophe for either of them to miss the playoffs. Dakar have a points difference of -11 and Kriol Star -47.
With both Dakar and Kriol Star on two wins, Kriol Star will need a win to better FUS Rabat’s record of two wins and a -19 points difference, whereas ASCVD have some wiggle room even in case of a defeat should they finish third.
Ville de Dakar’s Fall was arguably the best player on the night with 17 points, 13 rebounds and 6 assists, but if Libasse Faye’s team are to beat Monastir in their last encounter on Sunday, they will need to spread the scoring as Petro did on Saturday.
Source: espn.com