City Thunder and MBB determined to bounce back on Game Day 2

Coaches Sam Vincent and Brad Ibs assured that better days and performances will come.

Their teams ended up on the losing side on the opening day of the 2025 Basketball Africa League (BAL) Nile Conference in Kigali, Rwanda, on Saturday.

In the opening game of the conference, MBB, a debutant, did many things right. They made a comeback from a 19-point deficit and cut the gap to five points later in the third quarter.

However, Libyan champions Al Ahli Tripoli proved to be stronger and closed the game with an 87-77 win.

In the second game of the day, another BAL debutant, Nairobi City Thunder, competed hard for most of the first half before losing 92-63 to the Nile Conference hosts, APR.

Former NBA player Sam Vincent and Coach Ibs later explained why Nairobi and MBB lost. Both promised to fight back on Game Day 2 on Sunday.

Vincent admitted that inexperience cost MBB the game, though they were applauded for their never-give-up attitude.

He said: "We probably had at least four or five possessions where the shot clock expired. Several times on offense, we didn't do a good enough job boxing out and securing the ball. They got the rebound, threw it out, and made threes."

“When you couple that with the little mistakes that turned into points for them, to me, it really shows some inexperience and that our team just hasn’t played together that long.

“When we got it down to five, instead of making the right play, getting the right shot, and defending the ball well, we gave them a couple of scores, and it got back to ten. These are things that we can look at and focus on improving for the second game.”

MBB’s bench was outscored 32-10.

Asked about his team’s rotation, Vincent replied:“We made decisions to try to win the game. We play the guys we believe can help us win. I play the guys I think can get the job done."

With five games left in the conference and all four teams still having realistic chances of reaching the postseason in Pretoria in June, Vincent is optimistic about their prospects.

"If we make a few corrections, they'll be more competitive in the next game.

We aren't going to make any excuses. We're going to play tougher and try to improve in some areas.

Like Vincent, Coach Ibs admitted that it’s too early to give up.

“We were a bit out of character today. Offensively, the ball wasn't moving much; we would like more players to touch it. That led to some defensive possessions for them,” said the City Thunder tactician.

The 46-year-old American went on saying: "We would like to play more team basketball."

Looking back at his team’s 29-point loss, Ibs insisted that: "This game could have gone differently. Hopefully, you’ll see us play better in the next five games. We need to stick to our principles. We did so for long stretches, but we lost our focus, and you can’t do that against a good team.

“We have great shooters on this team. We have full confidence that they will make their shots tomorrow.”

Ibs called on the Nairobi City Thunder to “just stay with us.”

Nairobi City will go up against Al Ahli Tripoli on Sunday, while MBB will face the hosts, APR.