June 7, 2024

Highlights from the 2024 BAL season

The 2024 Basketball Africa League season came to an end over the weekend at BK Arena in Kigali, Rwanda with Petro de Luanda becoming the fourth winner of Africa's premier basketball event.

The bal.nba.com recalls some of the most memorable moments of the 2024 BAL season.

March 1, 2024 – Yanick Moreira scored the first basket of the 2024 BAL season that gave Petro de Luanda a short-lived 2-0 lead against FUS de Rabat at Sunbet Arena in Pretoria, South Africa. BAL debutante FUS de Rabat shocked Petro de Luanda 82-73 in the opening game of the season.

March 16, 2024 – After losing twice against Petro de Luanda in their two meetings in 2022 and 2023, Cape Town Tigers recorded their only victory in the 2024 Kalahari Conference by beating the Angolan champions 84-78.

March 17, 2024 – An 84-75 win over Cape Town Tigers saw FUS de Rabat improve their record to 3-1 and finish top of the Kalahari Conference ahead of Petro de Luanda (2-2).

April 24, 2024 – City Oilers caused the biggest upset in the Nile Conference by beating hosts Al Ahly SC 82-81.

April 27, 2024 – Al Ahly Ly’s Jo Lual Acuil Jr. set a BAL scoring record with his 42 points in a 110-78 victory over City Oilers.

April 27, 2024 – Al Ahly SC (5-1) and Al Ahly Ly (3-3) qualified for the 2024 BAL Playoffs by finishing first and second, respectively in the Nile Conference.

April 27, 2024 – Cape Town Tigers confirmed as one of the two best third-placed teams for the 2024 BAL Playoffs.

May 4, 2024 – APR guard Obadiah Noel scored a buzzer-beater three-pointer that sent the APR v US Monastir game to overtime before the Rwandan champions prevailed 89-84.

May 7, 2024 – US Monastir finished the 2024 Sahara Conference’s first round with a 0-3 mark, but the Tunisian champions responded with a 3-0 in the second round to finish 3-3. No other team in BAL history has ever registered such a comeback to qualify for the Playoffs.

May 9, 2024 – AS Douanes’ forward Mike Fofana scored a game-winning mid-range jumper at the buzzer to help the Senegalese champions beat Rivers Hoopers 56-54.

May 11, 2024 – Rivers Hoopers beat APR 78-71 in the first-ever BAL game decided in double-overtime.

May 12, 2024 – Despite Rivers Hoopers’ 73-62 defeat to US Monastir on the last day of the regular season, the Nigerian champions won the 2024 Sahara Conference with a 4-2 mark.

May 25, 2024 – Firas Lahyani scored a buzzer-beater three-pointer to help US Monastir beat Petro de Luanda 70-67 in the Classification Round.

May 26, 2024 – After beating Libya’s Al Ahly Ly twice during the Nile Conference, then-defending champions Al Ahly SC saw their BAL season come to an abrupt end after an 86-77 defeat to the Libyan champions.

May 26, 2024 – Cape Town Tigers caused the biggest upset of the season by eliminating FUS Rabat with 91-88 overtime win.

May 27, 2024 – Rivers Hoopers beat the 2022 BAL winners US Monastir 92-88 in a Quarter-Finals encounter that ended the Tunisia champions’ BAL season.

May 27, 2024 – Petro de Luanda cut a 20-point deficit in the third quarter to beat AS Douanes 66-65 in the Quarter-Finals.

May 29, 2024 – Al Ahly Ly outscored Rivers Hoopers 13-10 in overtime to win 89-83 in first Semi-Final of the day.

May 29, 2024 – Petro de Luanda advanced to the BAL Final for the second time thanks to a 96-86 overtime win over Cape Town Tigers.

May 31, 2024 - Rivers Hoopers outclass Cape Town Tigers 80-57 in the Third-Place Game.

June 1, 2024 – Petro de Luanda cut a 12-point half-time deficit to beat Al Ahly Ly 107-94 in the 2024 BAL Final.

This was arguably the most competitive and unpredictable BAL season of all times with all twelve teams, including the champion, registering at least 3 losses each.

Senegal fans turned out in large numbers for most of AS Douanes games, with nearly 9,000 fans in the stand during the ‘Le Gabelous’ 77-68 loss to Rivers Hoopers at Dakar Arena.

For the first time in BAL history two African heads of states – since Emmanuel Macron and Paul Kagame on May 28, 2021- attended a league game together with Senegal’s President Bassirou Diomaye Faye hosting Rwanda’s Paul Kagame during the AS Douanes vs APR game at Dakar Arena.

AWARDS

In addition to the 2024 BAL MVP award Jo Lual Acuil Jr., won the Dikembe Mutombo Defensive Player of the Year, led all players in scoring with 21 points per game while being named to the All-BAL First Team as well as the All-BAL Defensive Team.

For the second season in a row Rivers Hoopers guard Will Perry won the Manute Bol BAL Sportsmanship Award.