Al Ahli Tripoli are the 2025 BAL Champions

Al Ahli Tripoli beat Petro de Luanda 88-67 on Saturday, at SunBet Arena in Pretoria, South Africa, to win the 2025 Basketball Africa League (BAL) title.

This victory made Al Ahli Tripoli the first Libyan team to win the BAL.

Petro de Luanda finished as runners-up for the second time in BAL history.

This is also the first time a conference winner has won the BAL, and the first time a BAL Coach of the Year has led a team to the championship title.

Jean Jacques Boissy was voted the 2025 BAL MVP.

Petro de Luanda faced ups and downs throughout the season and stepped onto the SunBet Arena floor looking to become the first team to win back-to-back BAL titles. However, it was a league debutant who had the last laugh.

Al Ahli Tripoli’s determination to make their mark on the BAL's history books was evident early on when Jaylen Adams opened the scoring with a three-pointer.

Rigoberto Mendoza responded with a layup, and Cleusio Castro followed with another layup to give Petro their first lead, 4–3.

However, what happened next was exactly what Al Ahli Tripoli displayed throughout their BAL journey, a complete dominance over opponents.

Their remarkable began on their home court in Tripoli during the Road to the BAL qualifiers and culminated in the 2025 BAL title in Pretoria.

As he did throughout the season, Boissy came off the bench and wrote the game’s narrative in his own terms.

His first three-pointer sparked a 5-0 scoring run for a defining 22-17 lead. Even after Petro de Luanda called a timeout, Boissy and his teammates never let up.

To remind everyone that they were well prepared, Al Ahli Tripoli alternated between a 2-3 zone defense and a full-court press, leaving the reigning champions looking helpless.

By halftime, Al Ahli Tripoli led by five, 43–38. However, it was in the final quarter that they extended their dominance, leading by as many as 23 points with four minutes left.

Assem Marei dominated Petro de Luanda, finishing with 22 points and 19 rebounds—his best performance in the 2025 BAL season.

Fabian White Jr. added 18 points and nine rebounds, and Jaylen Adams orchestrated the new champions’ offense with 11 points and seven assists.

Aboubacar Gakou, the newly crowned MVP of the Angolan League, led Petro de Luanda in scoring with 12 points off the bench. Patrick Gardner and Childe Dundao finished with 11 points apiece.

“They capitalised from almost every mistake we made,” said Rigoberto Mendoza who shot 4-for-6 to finish with 10 points.

The Dominican Republic player added: “We struggled to move the ball around, and we could have controlled our emotions a little better than we did. All these things combined cost us the championship game.”

“Better team or not, it was just a basketball game. In a situation like that, the team better controls its gameplan comes up as the better team, that’s what happened,” Mendoza reflected.

How did Al Ahli Tripoli became the first team from the Road to BAL qualifiers to win the BAL title?

“The key factor to our BAL success was our togetherness,” said Al Ahli Tripoli shooting guard Nasseim Badrush.

He added: “We stuck together no matter what the circumstances we faced. From traveling to Turkey for our training camp after the Nile Conference to travelling to Tunisia to apply for our Visas for South Africa we fought together because we had a goal.”

In addition to his BAL MVP award, Jean Jacques Boissy won the season’s leading scorer award. He averaged 18.9 points across ten games.