Al Ahly have the most one-point losses in BAL history

When the final buzzer sounded at the end of Saturday's second and last game in Rabat, Al Ahly reached an unfortunate milestone.

Since the launch of the Basketball Africa League (BAL) in 2021, no team has lost more games by one point than Al Ahly.

On Saturday night, the 2023 BAL champions appeared to be in control after fighting back from a 17-point deficit and using a 7-0 scoring run to take a seemingly comfortable seven-point lead (68-61) with fifteen seconds remaining. Then, Al Ahly’s worst nightmare came true. 

Club Africain emerged from the ashes to outscore Al Ahly 8–0 in the final 15 seconds of the game, thanks to a combination of Al Ahly errors and, more importantly, Club Africain's pure never-give-up spirit. 

This 69–68 loss to Club Africain makes Al Ahly the team with the most one-point losses in BAL history. 

Al Ahly have lost three one-point games, which is two more than three other teams that have also lost a game by one.

Previously, Al Ahly lost two BAL games by one point in Cairo. First, Petro de Luanda escaped with a 91–90 win during the 2023 season, and then City Oilers shocked Al Ahly 82–81 in Cairo during the 2024 season.

Other teams that have lost by one point include Petro de Luanda, Nairobi City Thunder and AS Douanes.

Petro de Luanda lost to ASC Ville Dakar (65–64) in the 2025 Sahara Conference in Dakar.

AS Douanes lost 66–65 to Petro de Luanda in the 2024 quarterfinals in Kigali, and Nairobi City fell to MBB 75–74 in the 2025 Nile Conference in Kigali.

Al Ahly Head Coach Linos Gavriel later explained how his team lost to Club Africain, saying: “I have known the Club Africain team since my time coaching in the Tunisian league — they never give up! We made a couple of bad decisions and committed a few fouls. Omar Abada hit a tough shot — a dagger over the glass — and the shots we took weren't open.”

Al Ahly shooting guard Zack Lofton added: “They played tougher in the first half — I think that was the main difference between the two teams.”