How the quarterfinals pairings came to be

Now that the pairings for the 2025 Basketball Africa League (BAL) Quarterfinals are set, we will look at how they came to be and what lies ahead.

Before the seeding round, Al Ahli Tripoli topped the charts with an impressive 6-0 record and the highest point differential among the eight teams, while Al Ittihad ranked second.

However, Al Ittihad Alexandria now holds the top position with the best record so far: a 7-0 mark.

On the opening day of the 2025 BAL postseason, the Egyptian champions outclassed Al Ahli Tripoli 85-74 to send a message about their intentions in the league.

As the No. 1 seed, Al Ittihad Alexandria will face FUS Rabat in the quarterfinals on Sunday, June 8.

The Moroccan champions secured the final playoff spot by finishing with the second-best third-place record in the regular season, making them the eighth-ranked team in the seeding games round.

FUS Rabat could have improved to No. 7, but a 91–88 loss to Kriol Star on Friday in the playoff opener kept them at No. 8.

This will be the third game of the season between Alexandria and Rabat. Two months ago, Al Ittihad Alexandria beat FUS Rabat twice at the 2025 Kalahari Conference in Rabat.

Kriol Star (7) will face Al Ahli Tripoli (2) in a rematch from Group A of the Road to the Basketball Africa League (BAL) West Division, which took place in Tripoli. There, the Libyan champions defeated their Cape Verdean counterparts 100–77.

US Monastir arrived in Pretoria as the No. 3 team, and they head to the quarterfinals in the same position after beating the No. 4 Rivers Hoopers 89–81 on Saturday night.

Both teams maintained their positions in the seeding round.

In the quarterfinals, US Monastir will face Petro de Luanda, who fell from fifth to sixth after losing 75-57 to APR.

This will be a rematch of the 2022 BAL Final, in which US Monastir lifted the trophy.

More recently, in the 2024 seeding games rounds, US Monastir prevailed 70-67 over Petro de Luanda thanks to Firas Lahyani’s buzzer-beating three-pointer, although Petro de Luanda went on to win the league and US Monastir was eliminated in the quarterfinals by the Rivers Hoopers.

As the No. 5 team, APR will play the No. 4 team, Rivers Hoopers. It will be the third game between the champions of Rwanda and Nigeria, dating back to last season when the Hoopers beat APR twice in the Sahara Conference in Dakar.

Following the seeding game rounds, the only teams that climbed or dropped in the rankings were Al Ittihad Alexandria (+1), APR (+1), Al Ahli Tripoli (-1), and Petro de Luanda (-1).