Petro de Luanda are the 2023 Nile Conference champions

Petro de Luanda stunned Al Ahly in a thriller to win the 2023 Nile Conference.

Carlos Morais set the tone for Petro who concluded their regular season campaign undefeated in five games.

But it was Gerson Lukeny Goncalves who saved the day for Petro after scoring a buzzer-beater tip-in that gave Petro the 91-90 victory.

Morais was one three-point shy of tying Will Perry’s BAL record for most threes made in a single game.

He had a 8 for 12 shooting from beyond the arc to finish with a game-high 34 points.

With Morais playing at such inspiring level, Petro went on the lead by as many as 15 points at some point in the game.

But Al Ahly never backed down and cut the gap to six points (50-44) at the break.

Al Ahly used a 9-0 run to start the third quarter, a sign of what the second half would be.

After Omar Oraby picked his second foul midway through the first quarter, and was benched to save him from a potential early exit of the game, Ahmed Ismail turned out as an unsung hero for Al Ahly.

Ismail had a 8 for 11 shooting to finish with 17 points and 7 rebounds.

After trailing for most of the first half, Al Ahly took the lead on a number of occasions, and when Nuni Omot hit a fadeaway jumper that put the Egyptian champions in front 90-89 with 15 seconds left it looked as if it was game over.

Not until Goncalves hit the game-winning shot after a Morais miss.

“We are not a team of just one, two or three players. We have a team,” Morais said during the post-match press conference.

“For us to be in this position right now we got to have a team,” he added.

As an example of Petro’s deep rotation, Gerson Domingos, who spent the entire first half on the bench, came up with critical shots in the third that changed the dynamic of the game.

Domingos was 3 for 4 from behind the arc to finish with 11 points.

Childe Dundao added 13 points while Souleyman Diabate finished 11 off the bench.

“Gerson hasn’t played much in the BAL, but tonight he came up big for us in just eight minutes,” Morais acknowledged.

Omot led Al Ahly with a team-high of 25 points and Corey Webster came off the bench to score 18 of his 22 points from beyond the arc.

“At the beginning of the game we didn’t understand well what they are like as a team, specifically Morais,” Al Ahly coach Agustin Bosch said.

“We got him many open looks; we should have matched him up better.”

Al Ahly dropped to 3-1, and irrespective of the remaining Nile Conference games, they will finish in second place.