Egypt’s Zamalek became the first-ever champions of the Basketball Africa League after overcoming US Monastir in a final game. BAL named 3 player awards after three African NBA legends.

In a spectacular game between two North African teams in the inaugural Basketball Africa League final, the Egyptian giants, Zamalek defeated Tunisia’s US Monastir 76-63 at the Kigali Arena to become the first-ever BAL Champions.

Both teams were favorite in the beginning and had unbeaten runs in this tournament before rubbing shoulders on Sunday 30, 2021 in the magnificent Kigali Arena.

Zamalek trailed US Monastir 22-17 at the end of the first quarter before gaining the lead in the second quarter and went into the break with a 2 point lead, 44-42. The Egyptian champions maintained that lead in the next two quarters and finished the game with 76-63.

In the early game, Angola’s Petro de Luanda clinched third place after thrashing Rwanda’s Patriots 97-68.

Following the completion of this successful Africa League, awards have been given for the players who have excelled in this competition. The awards were named after the African NBA legends.

The Most Valuable Player, MVP is named after Nigerian Hakeem Olajuwon and Zamalek’s Walter Hodge claims it to become the first Hakeem Olajuwon BAL MVP. Hodge is a former US Monastir player.

BAL defensive prayer of the tournament is named after DRC’s Dikembe Mutombo who was in attendance of the final game. Zamalek’s Anas Osama Mahmoud won Dikembe Mutombo BAL Defensive Player of the inaugural season.

The sportsmanship award is named in honor of South Sudan’s Manute Bol. This award goes to the Tunisia International and US Monastir forward, Makrem Ben Romdhane.

Basketball Africa League, a brainchild of the NBA-FIBA partnership, replaces Africa Basketball League as the continent’s top-tier league. In his speech at the opening ceremony, BAL President Amadou Gallo Fall said BAL is going to be one of the absolutely professional leagues in the world in the years to come.

Petro de Luanda’s deep squad helped them finish the group games undefeated as its bench triumphed AS Salé’s bench 50-10 in the last game of BAL Group B.

Matchday 7 played on Sunday, May 23, 2021, was concluded with the battle of the two undefeated teams in Group B, Athlético Petróleos de Luanda, and Association Sportive Salé. Both teams had a convincing run of victories against the FAP and AS Police.

In a very thrilling game, Petro came in this match aware of Stoglin’s shoots combined with great strength plus the ability to drive the ball and get it into the paint, which is almost unstoppable.

Terrell Stoglin became the first player to score 40 points in this BAL. Stoglin achieved the milestone last Friday, May 20, 2021, when he dominated AS Police in his team’s win.

AS Salé put together an early run, thanks to 13 points from Rashad Deane James in the first quarter. Rashad was outstanding in this quarter before Petro head coach, José Neto noticed that all efforts had been emerged to stop Terrell Stoglin but this American guard needed special attention too. AS Salé finished the first quarter with a 7 point lead. 23-16

In the next Quarters, Petro’s defense was immense through their centers Pedro, Richards, and Joaquim who kept on rotating. Petro’s rich squad was instrumental in the comeback as the experienced guards Carlos Morais and Olimpio Cipriano helped the team in carrying momentum to increase the score as they won all three other quarters, 32-23, 20-17, 29-15 to make it 97-78.

Four times FIBA AfroBasket winner, Olimpio Cipriano stepped up when his side Petro needed him the most to secure a well-fought come-back victory against AS Salé. Cipriano, who started on the bench, made three-pointers every time he came on the court and continued to put the opponent in danger.

The 39-year-old shooting guard hit five of eight three-pointers attempts and scored 17 points in general in the 17 minutes he played. He finished the game with no turnover and 60 as field goal percentage.

AS Salé duo Terrell Stoglin and Rashad James scored 25 points and 22 points respectively. However, their efforts were not enough to keep the unbeaten record for this north-western-based Morocco club.

Petro finished with a 3-0 record in Group B after edging AS Salé to the top spot with a thrilling 97-78 triumph on the Group B last day match. AS Salé had picked up two wins from their three games to go through in second place, while Cameroon’s FAP took the third spot in a 1-2 record. AS Police, considered as an underdog before the tournament, completes the group with a series of 3 losses.

Petro and AS Salé together with US Monastir and Patriots of group A plus Group C’s Ferroviario and Zamalek have all booked their tickets in the quarterfinals. Two more teams will be added as the best third teams to make it eight.