Ruthless Club Africain extend unbeaten run to 4-0

Ruthlessness is the only way to describe how Club Africain outplayed Maktown Flyer in the second half to secure an 86-77 on Friday and extend their winning streak to 4-0. 

At the end of the opening quarter, Club Africain were 18 points behind (27-9), but with 4:37 minutes left on the clock, the Tunisian side were up by 20 points.

Club Africain remain the only undefeated team in the 2026 Sahara Conference, with one game left, while the Flyers lost their third consecutive game (1–4), with one game remaining. 

Omar Abada came up with a selection of clutch plays to lead Club Africain with 25 points. Mohamed Hadidane, who had a forgettable first half, turned out to be the game-changer, making threes after threes in the second half to finish with 15 points.

The 2012 London Olympian, Hadidane, shot 0-for-6 from the floor in the first half, including 0-for-5 from deep, but all he needed to do was stay on the court for the entire third quarter to turn the game around.

He made five of his eight three-point attempts in the quarter, including the shot that gave Club Africain their first lead (44–43), after which they never trailed again.

“Hadidane is a champion; he has won almost everywhere he has played,” said Club Africain forward Aminu Mohammed who contributed nine points.

“That’s what experienced players do. They don't worry about failure; they just stay consistent and focus on the next play. In the second half, he started scoring and helped us win the game,” Mohammed explained when reflecting on Hadidane’s poor shooting in the first half.

Club Africain really had to dig deep to remain undefeated in the Sahara Conference.

Their three-point shots weren't falling in the first half (they went 1-for-17), and before they switched to a successful zone defence, they made only 29% of their shots.

In contrast, Maktown took to the court determined to avoid a third consecutive loss. Shots from mid-range, long range and fast breaks were going in, and at one point they were leading by 18 points.

Club Africain knew that sooner or later their offence would click. Four days earlier, they had trailed by 15 points against the JCA Kings before securing a 79–74 overtime victory. 

“The zone defence was crucial in slowing down their transition. It helped us get back in the game and forced their shooters to take contested shots,” Mohamed acknowledged.

The only time the Flyers led by as many points in the Sahara Conference was when they reached a 16-point lead before beating the JCA Kings 76–68.

James Butler Jr. led the Flyers in scoring with 18 points and Patrick Ogbodege Abah added 17 for the Nigerian champions.

Aminu Mohamed continued his assessment of the game, saying: “When you play on a team with a lot of experience and a unique point guard like Omar Abada, who can control the game, it makes a big difference. He led us all the way today. Even when we were down, we stuck together and the energy from the fans brought us back into the game. Our experience took over and we ended up winning.”

“We don’t mean to be down by that much (-18). You can’t take any opponent lightly. We got off to a slow start. We weren’t making our shots at first, our defence wasn’t great, and they were getting easy baskets in transition. We found ourselves in that situation back-to-back, but that wasn’t our intention. However, when you have experienced players like we do, we just take possession after possession and fight our way back into the game.”

What comes next for Club Africain?  “It's the same approach, game by game, with the same mindset. Today is over; tomorrow is a new opportunity to play and win. Even though we have already qualified, we also want to match up against the best and see where we stand before we go to Kigali. This game is a good opportunity for us to gel as a group,” Mohamed said. 

Peter Olisemeka, who crashed the boards with 12 rebounds while contributing nine points later told the BAL.NBA.com that they “will definitely fight until the very end. That’s the plan. We definitely want to make it to Kigali!”

BAL