Basketball, The BAL : U.S. Monastir.. starts with a victory in the Playoffs run

Let’s look back on the last game of Last 8 of the #TheBAL as U.S. Monastir takes on the A.S. Douanes

And so, it goes one, two, three, four straight W’s. On the 27th of May, The Tunisian delegation of U.S. Monastir clinched the 3rd spot of the Basketball Africa League semi-finals. Squeaking their shoes on the court, coach Ben Slimane’s classic starting-5 is made up of PG Omar Abada, SG Mourad El Mabrouk, SF Radhouane “Sekka” Slimane, C Majoc Ater James and PF Makrem Ben Romdhane. On the other side, dressed in their all-green Nike jerseys, A.S. Douanes from Senegal starts with PG Alkaly Ndour, PF Mamadou Lamine Diop, G Serigne Bamba Gueye, F Cheikh Ahmet Kamara and C/PF Hassan Ahmed El Sayid Attia.
For the 3rd quarter-finals of the Basketball Africa League, the undefeated Monastirians meets with 8th seed A.S. Douanes, who recorded only 1 win early in this competition, against the G.S. Pétroliers from Algeria.
Tip off in Kigali Arena, won by the Senegalese. The game starts slow, and it takes a whole minute of the first quarter before a point is scored by Mourad El Mabrouk, who makes both of his free throws. The Monastirians then proceeds to jog a 6-0 run. It seems that the game is going to be an easy one for the Tunisians until… A.S. Douanes decides to play a good defense. The Tunisians fail 7 of their 3 points attempt and Mamadou Faye sinks one from downtown to bring the Senegalese at -1 at the last minute of the first quarter. Coach Ben Slimane substitutes PG Omar Abada for the Lebanese Wael Arakji who widens the gap in the last couple of seconds. Q1 ends on a 19-16 score. This is the worst start for Monastir since the start of the competition.

Q2; U.S. Monastir shakes the first quarter off and starts the second period with a 7-0 run, instating a +10 gap, preventing the Senegalese to get onto a good rhythm. Makrem Ben Romdhane lays-up the first two points, followed by Crawford then Mourad El Mabrouk sinks a 3 pointer. The Monastirians seems to finally get in the form we knew them to be in throughout this competition and the company stretches the gap to +16 before heading to the locker-room with a 3-pointer signed, sealed, delivered from South Sudanese Center, Ater Majoc. 48-34 on the counter on HT.

Q3 has always been U.S. Monastir comfort zone, and they proved it again against A.S. Douanes. After stretching the gap right before HT, the Monastirians haven’t been challenged by their contenders. They jog-on the 3rd period with the only difference being the absence of Wael Arakji, who usually shows off his talent and beautiful ball control. The Lebanese got substituted at the start of the 2nd Half-Time and will hit the court only at the last-minute assisting Makrem Ben Romdhane from downtown. 66-47 on the counter.

Q4; Arakji still on the court, steals the ball and assists Crawford’s 3-pointer, gets fouled on, puts both of his free-throws, takes on a rebound, sinks a 3-pointer and… gets subbed-out? +20 for the Monastirians as they move through the last 5 minutes of the game stretching their lead more and more. The Tunisians won’t string their 4th game in a row with +90 points on the counter as they don’t manage the last minut, wasting a 3-pointer by Marnaoui then a lay-up by Bhouri. As the buzzer rings on the Kigali Arena, the game ends with an 86-62 W. And yet…
… and yet, there’s something in the air. “We got to take care of the ball. We need to get more angry. The anger we showed today is not enough. I watched Zamalek and the Angolan, they were more angry playing yesterday. That’s not acceptable. We need to go back and have a conversation about how bad we want it as a team because we need display it on our next game” says Ater Majoc with a game high of 17 points, 6-for-8 shootings and 6 rebounds. But Makrem Ben Romdhane is your MVP of the game combining 16 points, 6 rebounds and 6 assists. Some questions are left unanswered too, this time, pointing at Coach Mounir Ben Slimane and his player’s time-management. It’s safe to say that U.S. Monastir shouldn’t slow their run and question the few weaknesses they showed on the first period.

The Tunisian delegation will meet, again, the Patriots Basketball Club from Rwanda for the second semi-finals of the tournament, Saturday the 29th, at 5:30 CAT. Petro de Luanda from Angola will meet Zamalek from Egypt at 2:00 PM CAT.