KIGALI, Rwanda -- South Africa's Made By Ball (MBB), making their debut, suffered an 87-77 loss to Libya's Al Ahli Tripoli on Saturday in the opening game of the Basketball Africa League (BAL) Nile Conference.
Despite American Jovan Mooring's 26 points, Teafale Lenard Jr.'s 20 and Robinson Opong Odoch's 15, MBB were too disjointed to mount a sustained challenge to their fellow BAL debutants, who were led by Jean-Jacques Boissy's 28 points off the bench.
Al Ahli Tripoli were quickest out of the blocks, with Deon Thompson hitting back-to-back threes for the first six points. MBB struggled to find their rhythm early on, but a strong quarter from Mooring on offense and Neo Mothiba and Nathi Sibanyoni on defense helped limit the damage. Ahli Tripoli led 20-15 at the end of Q1.
Mooring scored the first two points of the second quarter from the free throw line, but then Boissy hit his stride as Ahli Tripoli went on a 9-0 run.
Try as they might, the Johannesburg team could not match the speed at which Ahli Tripoli put offensive plays together. Lenard Jr. and Odoch hit some key shots to keep the South African side in the running, but Boissy continued to lead the charge for Ahli Tripoli. At half-time, the Libyan side led 45-33.
It was more of the same in the third quarter as MBB continued to throw away the ball needlessly and Boissy continued to torment them. Ahli Tripoli were 58-39 up at one point but removed their foot from the gas somewhat towards the end of the third quarter, taking in a 64-50 lead into the last 10 minutes.
In the fourth quarter, Ahli Tripoli allowed MBB to creep back into contention as MBB went on a run. Mouhamed Camara had one of the standout moments of the game with a huge dunk. Not long afterwards, Odoch landed back-to-back threes, taking the score to 71-65. Soon, the lead had been whittled down further to five at 72-67.
However, Ahli Tripoli slowed the game down and managed to regain some of their momentum in the closing minutes. It was not a vintage performance from them, but they were the better team on the day.
Boissy hailed his team's preparation for the tournament, saying: "I really respect the management of Al Ahli, because they really respect basketball.
"They took us to Türkiye. We spent 15 days just getting ready, playing together, practicing and having friendly games. They do their best to put us in the best position to win games."
Herein may lie the difference between Ahli Tripoli and MBB, who had several players joining the group late. However, Sam Vincent's side can turn their tough start around on Sunday when they face conference hosts APR after Ahli Tripoli take on Kenya's Nairobi City Thunder.
The BAL airs on ESPN's channels in Africa (ESPN 218 and 219, Starsat 248).