Lebanon International shooting guard Wael Arakji comes off the bench to produce 28 points that helped US Monastir end the undefeated record of Rwanda’s Patriots.
In the much-anticipated match of group stage games, the Tunisian giants, US Monastir beat Patriots and became the first team to advance to the quarterfinals with an undefeated record, 3-0.
In this game, US Monastir got unparalleled help from the bench as the bench players contributed 60 points for all with Wael Arakji scoring 28 points alone in 22 minutes. The Patriots had only 16 points from the bench.
US Monastir outplayed Patriots 91-75 to win the third game in a row which goes on to emphasize and confirm that this team is the title contender and some of the observers would not hesitate to declare this Tunisian side the favorite for this maiden edition of the Basketball Africa League, BAL
On the home side, the Patriots were stunned by the performance from US Monastir, even Ibeh, and Costner did not produce anything close to their usual performance. However, Kenneth Gasana was doing an incredible job offensively. Kenny scored 22 points and assisted 8 times in the 30 minutes he played.
Patriots’ centers, Prince Ibeh and Bush Wamukota fouled out in the last quarter with 4 mins remaining which simplified the task for US Monastir to score into the paint.
Both US Monastir and Patriots secured their slots in the quarterfinals early as they both merged to beat GNBC and Rivers Hoopers. Quarterfinals are scheduled for May 25th and 26th 2021.
