Morais, Buiamba lead Petro to first BAL win in four games

Petro de Luanda bounced back from a disappointing start to the Kalahari Conference with a 100-88 win over hosts Cape Town Tigers on Sunday at SunBet Arena in Pretoria.

Petro’s 82-73 loss to FUS Rabat in the opener of the Basketball Africa League (BAL) Season 4 on Saturday night forced Jose Neto to make adjustments his rotation.

Yanick Moreira stepped in for Jone Pedro and new signing Edmir Lucas, who played 13 minutes against the Moroccan champions, saw no playing time on Sunday.

“We need to play better. We are here to fight for the [BAL] title,” said Neto.

For the second game in a row, Carlos Morais ignited Petro’s offense, shooting 5-for-11 from behind the arc to finish with 17 points; Glofate Buiamba added 17 points off the bench while Moreira came up with 10 points and 8 rebounds.

“There’s no easy games in the BAL,” Moreira acknowledged.

It was the 2022 BAL semi-finalists’ first win of the Kalahari Conference, and first win of their last four BAL games.

Petro de Luanda led from the opening jump-ball until the final buzzer, and reached their largest lead of 20 points (94-74), later in the fourth quarter.

Despite their win, Neto insisted that his team is not playing at the level he wants them to.

“It’s not the players’ fault. It’s my responsibility to raise my team’s level of play,” the Brazilian play-caller said.

Ngor Manyang who had an abysmal 0-4 shooting from behind the arc against Dynamo, emerged as Cape Town’s secret weapon, shooting 5-for-7 from the three-point line to finish with a game-high of 20 points.

Samkelo Cele added 19 points and Cartier Diarra contributed 18, but the South African champions dropped to 0-2.

Although Petro had a 17-point lead in the opening quarter, Cape Town Tigers - inspired by a rowdy home crowd - won the second quarter battle 28-16 to head to the locker-room with a narrow 47-42 deficit.

“I am happy for the win, but unhappy of our performance. Our second quarter was very bad,” Neto said.

Cape Town stepped on the floor aiming to cause what would have been the biggest upset in the 2024 Kalahari Conference, but trailing 9-1 in the opening minutes of the game and having Billy Preston and Diarra with three fouls apiece in the second quarter limited their chances of beating Petro de Luanda.

Petro de Luanda’s aggressive defence saw Cape Town score their first field-goal – a mid-range jumper from Cele – only three minutes into the game.

Cape Town Tigers tried everything they possibly could, but when Childe Dundao sank two straight three-pointers that extended Petro’s lead to 67-54 with 4:32 left in the third, it was game over for the Tigers.

Cape Town Tigers' 18-year-old Storm Gilchrist, who started for the second straight game, scored his first BAL basket from charity stripe before finishing with 3 points and 3 rebounds.
The Kalahari Conference resumes on Tuesday with Cape Town Tigers taking on FUS Rabat.