Boissy, Crawford end US Monastir’s title defense

US Monastir won’t defend its BAL title after losing to AS Douanes 76-60 on the last day of the Sahara Conference in Dakar.

US Monastir tried everything possible to stop a highly-motivated AS Douanes, but it couldn't avoid elimination.

Chris Crawford and Jean Jacques Boissy led AS Douane’s offense with 28 and 15 points each.

Boissy, who came off the bench, added 9 assists and 7 rebounds to finish with the highest efficiency rating (26) of the game in 25 minutes.

“One thing that I love about this group is that everybody listens. Everybody wants to get better. Even when we lost the first two games, I told the team not to worry, don’t be discouraged because this is an very good group of players,” said Crawford who played his first BAL season with US Monastir.

“Jean almost had a triple-double, that’s superb. He came out of the bench and did what he did in just 25 minutes.”

“I knew we could win and we had to win,” said Crawford.

It was a huge victory for the Senegalese champions, who, not only improved its mark to 3-2, but it qualified to the playoffs in May in Kigali.

“The Senegalese team deserved the win,” admitted US Monastir coach Modrag Perisic. “Tonight we didn’t play great.”

AS Douanes stepped on the floor knowing that beating the champions was the only result to extend its season.

Crawford scored 17 of AS Douanes’ first 22 points in the opening quarter for a 22-10 lead.

In the second quarter, Crawford and Co extended their lead to as many as 18 points, before heading to the locker room with a 42-32 advantage.

And although Monastir cut the gap to just 6 points (58-50) at some point, the damage was already done.

Local fans flocked into the Dakar Arena in big numbers to support their heroes, and their support paid off.

AS Douanes are headed to the playoffs for the second time in its second BAL appearance.

Firas Lahyani led Monastir with 15 points; Jerome Randle added 14 points; Mokhtar Ghayaza and Radhouane Slimane contributed 11 points apiece.

Monastir never backed down, but trailing the entire game proved an uphill task to overcome.

And when coach Perisic called on his bench to step up, it could only contribute 13 points against AS Douanes’ 30.

AS Douanes had only one option to avoid elimination, and this happened in a remarkable fashion with the win.