BAL debutant FUS Rabat stun defending champions Al Ahly SC

FUS Rabat sent a statement of their BAL intentions by beating the reigning champions Al Ahly SC 89-78 on Friday night.
 
The winners of the 2024 Kalahari Conference became the second team this season – after City Oilers – to beat the 2023 BAL champions.
 
2023 BAL Defensive Player of the Year Aliou Diarra recorded his third double-double of the season, finishing with game-highs of 21 points and 10 rebounds to help the Moroccan champions set a Quarter-Finals meeting with Cape Town Tigers.

Mark Lyons led Al Ahly SC with a team-high of 20 points, Patrick Gardner added 12 while Tony Mitchell Jr and Ehab Amin contributed 11 points apiece in the losing cause.
 
Despite the 11-point win, Rabat needed to come up with a meticulous plan to deny one of this season’s title contenders a win.
 
Al Ahly SC Head Coach Agusti Bosch found in Gardner what his team lacked in the opening quarter when they trailed 22-19.
 
 The left-handed forward came off the bench, shooting 5-for-7 in the second quarter to propel the reigning champions to a comeback.
 
Gardner finished the half as Al Ahly SC leading scorer with 12 points, although he didn’t score again in the second half.
 
Rabat trailed 49-41 at the break after allowing 7 three-pointers in the first half.
 
Coach Said El Bouzidi had to come up with answers for Gardner’s scoring spree and, more importantly, they needed to limit Al Ahly SC’s three-point prowess.
 
Rabat’s aggressiveness forced Al Ahly SC to an abysmal 2-for-17 shooting from behind the arc in the second half.
 
But it was FUS Rabat’s 10-0 run to start the fourth quarter that changed the dynamic of the game.

Yacine Baeri and Jonathan buried one three-pointer apiece to help FUS Rabat take their first and decisive lead in the second half, and they never trailing again.

FUS Rabat small forward Ayoub Nouhi, who contributed 7 points, urged his teammates to keep their feet on the ground
 
“We haven’t achieved any yet,” he said.
 
“It’s a great feeling to beat the defending champions but this is not the final. We are going to celebrate for a little while but we need to get ready for the game on Sunday.”
 
Reflecting on Baeri’s impact, Nouhi noted: “That’s why we bring those guys in. Yacine didn’t play much in the first half and he came up big in the fourth quarter. That’s one of the strengths of our team.”
 
Gardner, meanwhile, acknowledged that they need to do better: “We got to play forty minutes, but we are going to bounce back as a team, and we are still in it.”
 
“Sometimes I am up, sometimes I am down, but I just gotta stay consistent, even in the second half to impact the game, if I am not scoring. I got to rebound better and be a better teammate in the second half.”
 
Gardner said that the message in the locker room was to “Just stay together. The goal is still the same. At the end of the day the championship can still be ours.”