BAL Reigning Champions Zamalek Vie to Stay Undefeated

Cape Town Tigers head coach Relton Booysen has acknowledged that trying to beat Nile Conference hosts Zamalek on Tuesday won’t be an easy task, but he vowed to stick to his team’s game plan.

He made the remarks in the aftermath of Cape Town’s 90-61 defeat to Petro de Luanda on Sunday night, a game that revealed the uphill task that the South African champions face against the Basketball Africa League (BAL) title holders.

Against Petro, Booysen’s team could only score 33.3 percent of their field-goals – the second lowest in the Nile Conference so far -, and finished 8-for-15 from the free-throw line, but what the Tigers lacked offensively, they had to spare on the defensive end, recording 12 steals, and stoically kept Petro on the sight for three quarters.

And, if Evans Ganapamo and Nkosinathi Sibanyoni can score and rebound the way they did against Petro de Luanda; if Billy Preston and Jamel Artis return, Myck Kabongo and Pieter Prinsloo can contribute a bit more offensively, and Cape Town Tigers’ bench can produce, then Zamalek will need to bring their A-game to remain undefeated in the BAL.

As the only team that has never tasted defeat in history of the BAL (7-0) and playing in front of their home fans, Zamalek are favourites in this clash, but as the team’s leading scorer Ike Diogu has recently admitted, “there’s room for improvement.”

Anas Mahmoud (10 points 11 rebounds and 7 block shots in Game 1) , Diogu an DJ Strawberry have been exceptional for the White Knights, and are expected to spark Will Voigt’s team throughout the Nile Conference.

Diogu went on to elaborate the team’s confidence in the Nile Conference: “It’s definitely an aggressive team, good young players, we have shooters, bigs, the Egyptian big Anas [Mahmoud]. I think we’ll surprise a lot of people. We have guys that can a lot of things. We are like a Swiss Army knife; we can do a little bit of everything.”

Asked about the homecourt factor, the former NBA player admitted that “There is always going to be pressure. We are the reigning champions; the country expects us to do well. It’s pressure that we put on ourselves but pressure also makes diamonds. Good things can come out of pressure. We’re here to win all games. That’s the bottom line. We don’t want to lose any games. All games are going to be tough.”

For everything that Zamalek represents in the BAL, this is a superb opportunity for Cape Town to make history if they beat the Egyptian champions.