Saturday

West Division

Bangui Sporting 87-85 Al Ahly Benghazi

Central African Republic champions Bangui Sporting Club have secured their first ever ticket to the Basketball Africa League (BAL), thanks to an 87-85 hard fought win over star-studded Al Ahly Benghazi of Libya on Saturday night.

The CAR giants are coached by Liz Mills who happens to be the only woman to have coached a team at the BAL so far since its inception in 2021.

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Benghazi led by as many as 12 points early in the game. However, Ganapamo’s three-point shot gave Bangui their first lead (46-44) in the first half, but it was a short-lived advantage as Benghazi used an 8-0 run to close the half with a 52-46 advantage.

The first half was marked by high numbers of 3-pointers made including 6-for-15 for Benghazi against Bangui’s 7-for-19.

Rolly Fula Nganga, who helped APR win their first championship in 14 years, and Ganapamo led the Liz Mills-coached side with 10 and 11 points each before the break.

Marcus Crawford, who opened the score line with a 3-pointer, and Sofian Hamad led Benghazi with 15 and 13 points respectively in the opening half.

Eventually, Bangui adjusted defensively, allowing Benghazi to make 1 of 14 three-point attempts while they made six more in the second half to claim the club's most important win in the Elite 16 Qualifiers history.

Hamad came up with 20 points, 7 rebounds off the bench while giving out 2 assists. He was complimented by Crawford whose efficiency was 21 scoring 18 points, 6 rebounds and 6 assists while Solo Diabate was at 14 efficiency and 18 points, 5 rebounds and 2 assists.

After trailing for most of the game, Bangui seized an opportunity later in the fourth quarter and never looked back. It all started when Omega Ngaifa brought the game to an 83-83 draw with 1.48 minutes left on the clock.

Youngster Yasser Kamayangue gave Bangui an 85-83 lead with just 1.20 minutes left, but Benghazi could only regret their poor free-throw shooting when they needed them most. Both Zachary Lofton and Souleyman Diabate missed one of two free-throws they were awarded, leaving the score at 85-85 with 13 seconds left.

Then, substitute Kamayangue found Max Kouguere wide open for the game winning basket when the clock showed six seconds remaining.

And, although Diabate had a chance to win the game with a three-point shot, the Ivorian international missed it before the final buzzer sounded.

Kamayangue was again the hero of the night as he provided the assist that saw Max Kouguere make the winning basket. Kamayangue scored 16 points but credit must also go to Fula Nganga who came off the bench to contribute valuable 18 points, 3 rebounds and 1 assist.

Bangui Sporting Club's bench outscored Benghazi's 41-22. On the day that would seal Benghazi's pass to the BAL, making free-throws was a problem for the Libyan champions as they made only 13 of 23 of their attempts from the charity stripe. Ater Majok who dominated the paint with 12 rebounds finished 0-for-4 from the free-throw line.

Bangui seem to have learned from their previous mistakes and applied their lesson to stun a favorite Benghazi side. Resilience and self-belief were key to the CAR champions who will play in the BAL for the very first time while Benghazi will have a second to make it into the BAL in Sunday's Third-Place Game against the loser of the game between FUS Rabat and FAP.