APR shut down hosts AS Douanes in hard-fought win

AS Douanes fans turned out in their large numbers once again to support their heroes, but, that didn’t hold APR off to pull off a hard-fought 66-61 win.

It was a highly contested game that could have gone either way as the 16 lead changes showed.

Despite turning the ball over 21 times, APR’s 44 rebounds against AS Douanes’ 36 minimized the damage as the Rwandan champions prevailed.

Obadiah Noel came up with another heroic performance, leading APR with a game-high of 24 points and Adonis Filer, the other APR player to score in double digits, added 10.

APR forward Axel Mpoyo, who contributed 8 points, later shed light on how they pulled off their second win in the Sahara Conference.

“We knew from the beginning it was going to be a fight because they are a very physical team and we needed to come and play hard,” Mpoyo said.

Jean Jacques Boissy, the only AS Douanes to score in double digits, finished with 14 points, Adama Diakhite added 9 off the bench while Ibrahima Thomas, Abdoulaye Harouna and Mike Fofana, all contributed 8 points apiece in the losing cause.

Neither team managed a double-digits lead in the nerve-racking clash.

Mpoyo went on to say that one of the reasons why they experienced ups and downs in the low-scoring game was because of “A little lack of concentration at the end with the turnovers, but we needed to be more solid with the ball, especially towards the end of the game. That’s something we need to clean up for sure.”

After losing to Rivers Hoopers (86-82), APR knew they would need to bounce back to their playoff aspirations alive.

The game was so intense that with 32 seconds on the clock, the officiating team needed approximately five minutes to review an incident that resulted in a double technical fouls on APR's Noel and AS Douanes' Ibrahima Thomas.

With APR leading 60-59 in the waning seconds of the game, the final score was determined from the charity stripe as both teams were on foul limits.

APR and AS Douanes return to action on Thursday for the second round of the 2024 Sahara Conference.