JEAN Victor Mukama scored 13 points and made a game-high 11 points off the bench as Patriots rallied from a 13-point third-quarter deficit to beat Madagascar side GNBC 94-88 in overtime on Thursday night. The two sides were battling it out in the final Pool A game at the ongoing Basketball Africa League (BAL) final round qualifiers, which started Tuesday in Kigali. With the tightly-fought victory, the Rwandan champions finished top of Pool A to set a semi-final date with Ugandan giants City Oilers who progressed to the knockouts as Pool B runners-up. BREAKING: @PatriotsBBC fight back to edge GNBC of Madagascar 94-88 in overtime, and head into the semi-finals of the Basketball Africa League (BAL) final round qualifiers as Pool A leaders with a perfect 3:0 run. The semi-finals are due Saturday. #BAL2020Q #RoadToBAL2020 pic.twitter.com/oQM9s4LhwA — The New Times (Sports) (@TimesSportRW) December 19, 2019 Patriots and City Oilers face-off on Saturday, making it their first second clash in a space of two months following their first round meeting in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, where Patriots edged Oilers 74-63 to also finish unbeaten. In Thursday’s win, after trailing 57-44 with 11 minutes to play in regular time, Patriots slowly started to get back in the game and cut the gap, noticeably powered by the home support. With GNBC up 81-78 in the final two seconds, guard Sedar Sagamba shot the three-pointer that saw the buzzer hit to send the game into overtime. Led by youngster Mukama, Patriots outscored GNBC 13-7 in the overtime to register their third win in as many games after thumping Tanzania’s JKT 113-61 on Tuesday before seeing off UNZA Pacers of Zambia 76-53 on Wednesday. Elsewhere on Thursday, UNZA Pacers beat JTK 69-55, KPA (Kenya) won 79-67 over Ferroviario (Mozambique, while City Oilers ran riot against Cobra Sports in 108-71 win. In another semi-final, Group B leaders Ferroviario will be up against GNBC who finished second in Group A, also due Saturday.
