Cape Town Tigers Out in Cairo Looking to Shock African Basketball Royalty

Theoretically Petro de Luanda are favourites to secure one of the four tickets available for Nile Conference teams for the Basketball Africa League (BAL) playoffs in May in Kigali, but the Angolan champions face a tough test when they take on BAL debutant Cape Town Tigers on Sunday in Cairo.

The South African champions are new to the African basketball scene, but they count on an intriguing starting line-up that can make them dream big.

Pieter Prinsloo, a 6-foot-10 center, who represented his native South Africa at 2017 AfroBasket, has made his name playing professionally in Europe and Latin America. He could be valuable for the Tigers in the painted area where Petro count on Jone Pedro and Yanick Moreira – two of Africa’s finest centers.

Jamel Artis, one of the three former NBA players in the Nile Conference, is expected to spark Cape Town at both ends of the floor, and both – Evan Ganapamo and Billy Preston – a duo that played a major role during the Road to BAL qualifiers, remains the Tigers’ engines.

With eight players from inaugural BAL season, Petro are on a familiar territory.

Except for Cape Verdean Anderson Correia and rookie Thierry Darlan from the Central African Republic, the core of former African champions Petro de Luanda have represented the Angolan national team at some point in their careers.

Petro has a productive bench, they have terrific shooters, they move the ball at high pace, but if Cape Town are to upset the Angolan champions their bench will desperately need to step up and contribute, and, more importantly, they need to able to protect the perimeter line.

“Our utmost goal is to win all five games here in Cairo, but we also know that these won’t be easy games,” said Abou Gakou in an exclusive interview with the bal.nba.com.

The 24-year-old who sat out the inaugural BAL season after testing positive for COVID a few days before the tournament, recalled the toughness of the BAL: “We made some unforgivable mistakes last year in Kigali, but this season we’re looking to make things better and fight for the title. We also know that we can’t underestimate anyone.”

Petro arrived in Cairo a week after beating local arch-rival and Africa’s most successful basketball club Primeiro de Agosto in the Angolan Cup final. 

“We are a solid team and we are prepared to face whatever comes our way in the BAL,” Gakou added.

Meanwhile, Ganapamo noted that if they play at their best level “we have a good chance to shock a lot of people in this tournament,” the Central African Republic international player stressed.

“We are ready to play, and hopefully, things can go the way we prepared this team.”