Petro de Luanda advance to the Playoffs for the sixth time in a row

Petro de Luanda, the only team to have played in all six editions of the Basketball Africa League (BAL), have advanced to the playoffs for the sixth consecutive season. 

On Friday, the 2024 BAL winners beat Dar City 100–75, improving their Kalahari Conference record to 3–1 with one game remaining.

Dar City, who opened the season with two consecutive wins, lost their second game in a row and are now 2-2.

Childe Dundao led Petro de Luanda in scoring, finishing with a team-high 20 points and seven assists off the bench.

Although Petro de Luanda secured their biggest win of the 2026 Kalahari Conference thus far, they had to fight back against a Dar City team that seemed determined to regain their winning form.

Dar City led by as many as eight points early in the opening quarter.

However, when Pete Jok stole the ball from Daniel Utomi and sank a three-pointer to give Petro de Luanda a 19-16 lead, they never trailed again.

Petro went on to lead by as many as 31 points at one stage.

As in Petro de Luanda’s previous games in Pretoria, their bench proved vital once again, outscoring Dar City’s by 61 points to 19.

The Tanzanians were unable to count on their star player, David Michineau, who was sitting out with a hamstring injury.

Daniel Utomi, who led Dar City with 21 points, later explained their struggles to contain Petro de Luanda.

The Nigerian international said: 'Obviously, with David going down, we knew it was going to be a tough game. But the others had to step up. Unfortunately, they were just the better team tonight.”

Petro have very good team chemistry; you can tell they have been playing together for a long time. They have mature, physical players; I think that was the main difference tonight.”

Dar City will take on the high-flying RSSB Tigers in their final conference game on Saturday.

‘What else can we do? We have one more game to win; there is no other option,” said Utomi.

This was Petro de Luanda’s largest winning margin, and the second time they have reached the 100-point mark.

Pete Jok, who contributed 12 points and seven rebounds off the bench, insisted that Petro de Luanda won the game thanks to their defence.  

“Our defensive intensity made the biggest difference tonight,” Jok said, adding: 'We started slowly, but once we made a couple of substitutions and brought more energy to the defence, we took control of the game.'

This was Dar City’s second consecutive loss after a 2–0 start to the conference.