US Monastir dismiss favouritism status ahead of clash against AS Salé

For many, US Monastir are the frontrunner to win the Sahara Conference and advance to the playoffs in Kigali with the best record, but that’s not what Modrag Perisic thinks.

The US Monastir insists that there is still room for improvement.

In the build-up to Monastir’s game against AS Salé of Morocco – their third in the Sahara – Perisic says that no team should be underestimated, and if they are 2-0 after two games it’s because his team has taken every opponent seriously.

“Anybody can beat anybody. This is a very balanced competition,” he said to the bal.nba.com.

The Tunisian champions have outscored SLAC by 21 points and beat Ferroviario da Beira by 6 points.

Defensively, US Monastir have been ruthless, and mentally, Perisic’s team is one goal in mind.

“We are treating one game at a time. Our focus for now, is AS Salé. We are going to try to play our best and hope for the best result,” the Serbia tactician pointed out.

Asked why observers tend to describe US Monastir as favorite in the Sahara Conference, Perisic reminded that he has only been in charge of the team for less than a month and “This is a totally different new from last year.”

“For us it’s been great to have started with two straight wins. We are getting to know each other. Some national team players, including [Ater] Majok who was with the Lebanon national team, only joined us three days before the tournament. We have a lot of work to do.”

Meanwhile, the team trying to stop Monastir’s unbeaten run is AS Salé, a team relaunched their BAL campaign with 95-84 win over Ferroviario da Beira after a disastrous start to the tournament.

AS Salé are 1-1 ahead of the clash against Monastir.

The Moroccans showed a tremendous belief against Beira to stay in contention, and that was reflected on the way every player contributed.

AS Salé Head used Coach Liz Mills used nine players and eight contributed on both ends of the floor. All eight players scored three points or more each.

Some of the main strategies against US Monastir will be focus and  patience, says AS Salé guard Abdoulaye Harouna.

“We just to prepare and play the same way we did against Beira. I still think that we can play better than what we did last night,” Harouna said.

The Nigerien admitted that US Monastir can play physical and aggressive, but insisted that they have the assets to respond.

“The thing is, they have [Ater] Majok, which is a big presence inside for them, but we have Khalid [Boukichou], we’ve got Sofiane [Kourdou], these are guys who can make their presence in the inside too. We’ve got to focus on boxing out and get rebounds.”

“It’s always going to be about playing hard. We are going to play hard and live with the results. Most importantly we are going to try to win the game. “We had losses even before the BAL. Now we feel really confident for our last three games,” Harouna explained.