Rivers Hoopers open 2024 Sahara Conference campaign with hard-fought win over hosts AS Douanes

For the third straight year a Senegalese host team has lost their night of their opened their BAL campaigns at Dakar Arena

Back in 2022, Dakar Universite Clube lost 85-70 to SLAC on the opening night. A year later AS Douanes fell 76-70 to ABC Fighters in front of their home fans, and yet again AS Douanes have suffered another defeat going down 0-2 on opening night.

Not even the support of a large home crowd inside the Dakar Arena was good enough to carry the 2023 BAL runners-up to a winning start to the 2024 Sahara Conference as AS Douanes fell 77-68 to Rivers Hoopers.

Devine Eke led the Nigerian champions with a double-double effort of 31 points and 12 rebounds to finish as the most impactful player of the game.

Will Perry came up with 15 points, John Wilkins added 14 and the Hoopers improved their overall BAL record to 2-2 dating back to their debut in the league in 2021.

“I don’t think there was pressure, we just missed shots that we usually make,” said AS Douanes leading scorer Madut Akec who finished with 19 points.

Mike Fofana came off the bench to contribute 14 points, and Jean Jacques Boissy added 12 points.

Starters Abdoulaye Harouna and Chris Obekpa finished with 8 and 2 points respectively, while AS Douanes’ bench outscored Rivers Hoopers’ 21-7.

“A lot of us are new to each other, but I feel like we can bounce back tomorrow,” Akec explained.

After Nigeria’s Kwara Falcons finished 0-5 in the 2023 Sahara Conference, this River Hoopers' hard-fought win came as a major morale booster not only for Ogoh Odaudu's team but also for Nigerian teams.

“They want to chance this narrative [of Nigerian teams’ shortcoming in the BAL] by bringing me, Will Perry and Kelvin Amayo,” said John Wilkins.

He continued: “We came here to win, we came here to win as many as games as possible.”

Asked about the adjustments that AS Douanes need to make, Akec said that they need to “stay focused throughout the whole game; play more together as a team and be more patient.”

“We came ready, but today wasn’t our day. We’ll take day by day, and continue to get better.”

But the biggest reason AS Douanes lost to Rivers Hoopers, Akec admitted was because they “gave up too many second chance points to them. Turnovers, if we limit that, we’ll be good. The biggest difference was to get out-rebounded,” the South Sudanese guard added.

AS Douanes will face US Monastir on Sunday while Rivers Hoopers will go up against APR.