Sunday, May 18 Final score: APR 103–81 MBB Youssou Ndoye and Aliou Diarra powered APR to their second consecutive win in the Basketball Africa League (BAL) 2025 Nile Conference, after defeating South Africa’s MBB 103–81 before an energetic home crowd at BK Arena. The game was, in its early stages, shaped by tough battles on the flour, where the two opponents were separated by thin margins in the first and second quarters. MBB, playing their first BAL season, briefly seized control in the second quarter, with Peter Prinsloo’s back-to-back three-pointers giving them an eight-point lead. Despite trailing 45-47 at the break, APR stormed back in the second half with a dominant team performance spear-headed by Ndoye and Diarra. Ndoye scored a game-high 25 points, while Diarra posted his second double-double of the BAL season with 22 points and 14 rebounds before he walked off the court with an apparent injured. APR head coach James Edward Maye Jr.’s halftime talk seemed to ignite his team, who outscored MBB 28-12 in the third quarter and 30-22 in the fourth. President Paul Kagame and First Lady Jeannette Kagame were in attendance as the Rwandan champions closed out the game with authority. Boissy runs the show again! While Ndoye was entertaining the BK Arena crowed in APR’s colors, his Senegalese counterpart Jean Jacques Boissy had already made had his name in the BAL record books for most three-pointers and the first player to score 30 points in a single game this season as his side Al Ahli SC beat Nairobi City Thunder 115-87. With the win, the Libyan champions also recorded the highest scoring game in BAL history. Boissy and Ndoye now go head-to-head in Game 3 which will wrap up the first round of the Nile Conference on Tuesday, May 20.
