{"id":139324,"date":"2026-04-29T12:02:51","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T12:02:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/bal-club-africain-secure-first-playoff-ticket-from-the-sahara-conference\/"},"modified":"2026-04-29T12:02:51","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T12:02:51","slug":"bal-club-africain-secure-first-playoff-ticket-from-the-sahara-conference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/bal-club-africain-secure-first-playoff-ticket-from-the-sahara-conference\/","title":{"rendered":"BAL: Club Africain secure first Playoff ticket from the Sahara Conference"},"content":{"rendered":"

Club Africain of Tunisia defeated JCA Kings of Cote d\u2019Ivoire 79\u201374 Tuesday night at the Prince Moulay Abdellah Sports Complex in Rabat as the Basketball Africa League Sahara Conference continued in Morocco.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The win was enough to secure the play off ticket for the Tunisian side.<\/p>\n

This was Club Africain\u2019s third consecutive victory in the conference, whereas the Kings remained without a win after three games.<\/p>\n

The Africains needed an extra five minutes to overcome a tenacious, but error-prone JCA Kings team that squandered a superb opportunity to cause the biggest upset of the conference.<\/p>\n

While Club Africain star Omar Obada had a quiet night, Aminu Mohamed stepped up, leading his team with 21 points.<\/p>\n

Jonathan Ciss\u00e9 became the first player in the 2026 Sahara Conference to score 30 points, but this wasn\u2019t enough to prevent the Kings from losing.<\/p>\n

But how could the JCA Kings have won the rebounding battle 65\u201342 and made 33.8% of their field goals compared to Club Africain\u2019s 32.9%, yet still end up on the losing side?<\/p>\n

The Kings\u2019 loss can only be explained by the disparity in turnovers, with the Kings finishing with 18 compared to Club Africain\u2019s four.<\/p>\n

With eight more games left in Rabat, this was the game of the conference decided in overtime.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were well prepared today, and the team is improving all the time,\u201d insisted JCA Kings shooting guard Robinson Opong who finished six points.<\/p>\n

The Ugandan international player went on saying: \u201cIn each game, we are making more consecutive stops, which is why we were able to stay in the game and give ourselves a chance to win. Unfortunately, against a good team like Club Africain, who have been playing together all year and have good veteran players, little mistakes hurt.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Kings looked nothing like the team that many had ruled out after they lost their opening two games; their tenacity and sense of desperation in relaunching their BAL campaign was evident.<\/p>\n

Club Africain, on the other hand, were unrecognizable from the team that had won many hearts and been tipped as strong favorites to win their third consecutive game.<\/p>\n

From the moment the Kings took an 11\u201310 lead and went on to lead by nine (19\u201310) at the end of the first quarter, they grew in confidence, leaving Club Africain searching for answers.<\/p>\n

No matter how hard the Tunisian giants tried to retake the lead, the Kings remained in absolute control of the game. They contested every Club Africain possession and shot, and more importantly, won the rebounding battle 30\u201318 at half-time, leading 37\u201324.<\/p>\n

Just before halftime, the Kings reached their largest lead of 15 points (34\u201319).<\/p>\n

Club Africain came out with a more aggressive defence in the third quarter, and a 10-0 run at the start of the period was just what they needed to slow down the Kings.<\/p>\n

The third quarter proved costly for the Kings, who saw their double-digit lead evaporate to just one point (47\u201346) by the end.<\/p>\n

When Abada scored an exquisite shot that hit the top of the board before falling in, giving Club Africain their first lead and a game-changing moment, their fans went wild.<\/p>\n

\u201cCongrats to my team and to the JCA Kings for a hard-fought game,\u201d Club Africain power forward Jamelle Hagins said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t easy; we really had to work for it. My team showed a lot of character, even when the shots weren\u2019t falling. Everything seemed to be going wrong tonight, but we stuck with it and were able to win,\u201d Hagins added.<\/p>\n

When asked about Club Africain\u2019s struggle in the first three quarter, Hagins insisted that \u201cthere was nothing specific about our slow start; that\u2019s just how basketball goes. Sometimes shots go in and sometimes they don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

He even acknowledged that JCA Kings\u2019 dominance in the paint was challenging. \u201cTheir bigs are very active, and tonight they hurt us with their rebounding,\u201d Hagins said.<\/p>\n

Despite the Kings\u2019 third loss in as many games, Opong remained upbeat, saying: \u201cAll in all, I am happy with my team. We are improving all the time. If we keep playing like this, we\u2019ll stand a chance of winning a couple of games. What you saw today was a group of players who believe they can compete at the highest level. We\u2019ll keep working hard and come back stronger.\u201d<\/p>\n

The remaining three playoff spots will be decided in the next games in Rabat.<\/p>\n

The Sahara Conference continues today with two matches; Egyptian side Al Ahly will take on Maktown Flyers of Nigeria before ASC Ville de Dakar of Senegal hope to inflict a first defeat of the tournament to hosts FUS Rabat.<\/p>\n

The post BAL: Club Africain secure first Playoff ticket from the Sahara Conference<\/a> appeared first on KBC Digital<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Club Africain of Tunisia defeated JCA Kings of Cote d\u2019Ivoire 79\u201374 Tuesday night at the Prince Moulay Abdellah Sports Complex in Rabat as the Basketball Africa League Sahara Conference continued in Morocco. The win was enough to secure the play off ticket for the Tunisian side. This was Club Africain\u2019s third consecutive victory in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-139324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139324\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}