If we’ve learned anything about this particular Petro de Luanda group, it’s that you have to actually beat them.

Since they started their 2023 Basketball Africa League (BAL) campaign, their details are too precise and too consistent to ever get in their own way. You can’t just play well and expect them to lose.

It’s that same team that so many, including Al Ahly coach Agustin Juilbe Bosch, thought they were favorites to win the championship.

"Everybody was expecting Petro de Luanda to reach the final. I was expecting them in the final,” Bosch said after his side advanced to the BAL final after beating Stade Malien 78-73 in the semifinals.

However, credit goes to AS Douanes who expected nothing against the Angolan champions but to beat them, bring them down to their knees and knock them out of the BAL semifinals despite going into the game as underdogs. They beat them, outright.

ALSO READ: BAL 2023: AS Douanes end Petro de Luanda’s unbeaten run, advance to final

AS Douanes were better in this one, maybe better than they’ve played since coming into the league. With the season being their first year to qualify for the BAL playoffs, Senegalese champions proved more than just a thing.

They shot better, too, finally getting a handful of threes to fall. This is on top of locking down rivals’ talisman Carlos Morais.

Morais was locked down to only six points in the first half. This is probably the lowest score the Angola international shooting guard has ever had in his past three BAL seasons.

The first half was played on AS Douanes’ terms- at their pace, with their physicality, according to their rules of half-court engagements.

AS Douanes could move the ball better, visibly irritating Petro’s head coach Jose Neto who could not help but reflect the energy to the players.

Douanes’ Alkaly Ndour, shooting-guard Chris Crawford and Jean Jacques Boissy were key in scooping the win.

Boissy and Crawford found cleaner threes, despite not finding a way to consistently find a way to crack Petro’s defense off the dribble.

Petro, meanwhile, found advantage after advantage. Crawford kept on being subbed leaving easier matchups for the opponent.

A handful of missed shots and turnovers immediately led to a slender lead by AS Douanes who are now a win away from the championship.

With an unbeaten run since the campaign, Petro came into the league as the title favorites. Now that their run came to a shocking end, iIt is likely that they can now only be third-place favorites.

Not only is it the first time AS Douanes are playing the BAL playoffs, it is also the team’s first going into the final.

Good thing they are going against Egyptian champions and Nile Conference runners-up Al Ahly.

You have to actually beat Al Ahly, too, not for the same reasons as the Petro side but because of their sheer wealth of talent.

A final game at BK Arena on Saturday has never been more prospective!