2024 BAL final

2024 BAL final

Event	2024 BAL season
Petro de Luanda Al Ahly Ly (4–3) (6–3) 107 94 Head coach: Sergio Valdeolmillos Head coach: Ivan Jeremić
1 2 3 4 Total Petro de Luanda 26 14 35 32 107 Al Ahly Ly 24 28 23 19 94
Date	1 June 2024
Venue	BK Arena, Kigali, Rwanda
Favorite	Petro de Luanda (+146 on average) [1]
Referees	Hortencia Sánchez, Yann Davidson, Jean Sauveur Ruhamiriza
Attendance	6,404
Halftime show	Ishami Talent
←  2023 2025  →

The 2024 BAL final is the championship game of the 2024 BAL season, the third season of the Basketball Africa League (BAL), and the conclusion of the playoffs. The final will be played on 1 June 2024 in the BK Arena in Kigali, Rwanda, which hosts the final for a fourth consecutive year. The final was contested by Angolan club Petro de Luanda and Libyan club Al Ahly Ly.

Petro de Luada defeated Al Ahly Ly with a score of 107–94, winning their first-ever BAL title and their third continental championship, including the FIBA Africa Clubs Champions Cup. ^[2] As winners, Petro de Luanda, qualified for the 2024 FIBA Intercontinental Cup.

Background

Petro de Luanda became the second team to play in two BAL finals, returning after just one season and having already played and lost the 2022 finals. ^[3] Al Ahly Ly were the first Libyan team to play in a final, as well as the first team that qualified through the Road to BAL qualifiers the same season to play in a final. ^[3]

Al Ahly Ly guard Solo Diabate played a in a record-setting third final, and had the chance to become the first player to win three BAL championships, and faced his former team in the final. ^[4]

Previous finals

In the following table, finals played in the FIBA Africa Clubs Champions Cup, the previous highest pan-African competition, are in small text.

Team	Previous final appearances (bold indicates winners)
Petro de Luanda	1 (2022) 8 (1994, 1999, 2000, 2006 , 2007, 2009, 2012, 2015 )
Al Ahly Ly	None

Venue

On 19 June 2023, the BAL announced that BK Arena was used as the host arena for the playoffs and final for a fourth straight year, under an agreement with the Rwanda Development Board. ^[5]

Kigali	Kigali 2024 BAL final (Africa)
BK Arena
Capacity: 10,000

Road to the final

Further information: 2024 BAL season

Petro de Luanda		Round	Al Ahly Ly
Opponent	Result	Conference phase	Opponent	Result
2024 BAL Kalahari Conference Pos Team v t e Pld PCT 1 FUS Rabat 4 .750 2 Petro de Luanda 4 .500 3 Cape Town Tigers (H) 4 .250 4 Dynamo (D) 0 — Source: BAL (D) Disqualified; (H) Hosts		Standings	2024 BAL Nile Conference Pos Team v t e Pld PCT 1 Al Ahly (H) 6 .833 2 Al Ahly Ly 6 .500 3 Bangui SC 6 .500 4 City Oilers 6 .167 Source: BAL (H) Hosts
FUS Rabat	L 73–82	Matchday 1	Bangui SC	W 93–71
Cape Town Tigers	W 100–88	Matchday 2	Al Ahly	L 88–98
FUS Rabat	W 89–86	Matchday 3	City Oilers	W 79–68
Cape Town Tigers	L 78–84	Matchday 4	Bangui SC	L 93–96
—		Matchday 5	Al Ahly	L 76–87
		Matchday 6	City Oilers	W 110–78
Opponent	Agg.	Playoffs	Opponent	Agg.
US Monastir	L 67–70	Seeding game	Cape Town Tigers	W 87–67
AS Douanes	W 66–65	Quarterfinals	Al Ahly	W 86–77
Cape Town Tigers	W 96–86 (OT)	Semifinals	Rivers Hoopers	W 89–83 (OT)

Petro de Luanda

See also: 2023–24 Petro de Luanda basketball season

Spaniard Sergio Valdeolmillos took over the team in March

Petro de Luanda qualified for their fourth straight BAL season by winning their sixteenth Angolan Basketball League championship, having defeated Primeiro de Agosto in the national finals. ^[6] The team largely remained the same, while Yanick Moreira and Edmir Lucas returned to Petro. ^{[7] [8]} They were allocated in the inaugural Kalahari Conference, in a group with FUS Rabat, Cape Town Tigers and Dynamo. Following the disqualification of Dynamo, who refused to play with the Visit Rwanda sponsorship logo, Petro went 2–2 in the conference, dropping one games against each opponent. ^[9] Their result in the conference phase was largely seen as a disappointment, something that eventually led to the firing of head coach José Neto. Neto, who had was in the fourth season with the team, was officially fired on 21 March. ^[10] Sergio Valdeolmillos was hired as his successor four days after. ^[11]

Nick Faust was acquired for the 2024 BAL playoffs, while Anthony Nelson left the team. Petro faced US Monastir in a match-up for the fifth seed, but lost following a Firas Lahyani buzzer beater. ^[12] In the quarterfinals, they were matched up with AS Douanes in a re-match of the 2023 BAL final. Despite trailing by 20 points at one point in the game, Petro came back to advance. ^[13] In the semifinal, Petro met the Cape Town Tigers for a third game of the season, and managed to pull ahead in overtime. ^[14]

Al Ahly Ly

See also: 2023–24 Al-Ahly Ly SC basketball season

Al Ahly Ly's Jo Lual-Acuil came into the final as the league's leading scorer

Al Ahly Ly qualified for the BAL after finishing in the third place of the West Division in the Road to BAL, defeating FAP in the final game. ^[15] During the Road to BAL, the team was led by Ater Majok and Chris Crawford, both former all-BAL selections. Majok and Crawford left the team, however, Al Ahly Ly reinforced their team with Jo Lual-Acuil, Majok Deng, Pierre Jackson and Kevin Murphy as their foreign core. They were allocated in the Nile Conference where they finished in second place, successfully sealing their playoff berth in the last gameday by defeating the City Oilers. Al Ahly Ly finished with a 3–3 record but held the tie-breaker over Bangui Sporting Club, based on aggregate points in the match-up between the two teams.

Ahead of the playoffs, Trae Golden, top scorer of the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA), was acquired and Pierre Jackson left the team. ^[16] Golden helped Al Ahly Ly to the seventh seed, following a large defeat over the Cape Town Tigers in the 7th-8th seed placement game. ^[17] In the quarterfinals, they were matched up with the defending champions Al Ahly. In surprising fashion, the Libyans handed Al Ahly their largest loss in BAL history. ^[18] In the semifinal, Al Ahly Ly faced fourth seed Rivers Hoopers and managed to win the game after overtime. ^[19]

Game

The first quarter of the game was closely contested, with Petro closing the quarter with a two-point lead. At halftime, Al Ahly Ly led by as much as twelve points with a score of 52–40, as Petro de Luanda gave up the most points in a first half they had in the season. In the third quarter, Petro fought back and following a Gerson Gonçalves three-pointer, the Angolans took a 68–67 lead with 2:30 left in the third quarter. In the fourth quarter, Petro guard Nick Faust, who finished with a team-high 24 points, led the way to give them the final push. The Angolans gradually grew their lead, behind back-to-back buckets from Markeith Cummings and Nick Faust, to eventually play the game out. ^[20] On Al Ahly Ly's side, league top scorer Jo Lual-Acuil was limited to just 15 points, while Majok Deng contributed 24, Trae Golden had 21, and Solo Diabate had 20 points. ^[20]

Petro de Luanda became the first Angolan team to win the BAL title, as well as the first Sub-Saharan team to win the championship. ^[20]

1 June 2024 4:00 PM

Livestats

Petro de Luanda	107–94	Al Ahly Ly
Scoring by quarter:26–24, 14–28, 35–23, 32–19
Pts: Faust 24 Rebs: Gonçalves 8 Asts: Gonçalves 8		Pts: Deng 24 Rebs: Lual-Acuil 9 Asts: Golden 8

BK Arena, Kigali, Rwanda Attendance: 6,404 Referees: Hortencia Sánchez, Yann Davidson, Jean Sauveur Ruhamiriza

Starters: Pts Reb Ast PG 00 Gerson Domingos 3 2 2 SG 10 Gerson Gonçalves 16 8 8 SF 24 Glofate Buiamba 5 2 1 PF 4 Markeith Cummings 20 5 3 C 2 Yanick Moreira 12 7 2 Reserves: G 1 Aginaldo Neto DNP F 5 Childe Dundão 9 5 5 G 6 Carlos Morais 0 2 0 G 7 Jone Pedro 6 2 1 F 12 Eduardo Simão DNP C 14 Cleusio Castro 10 4 1 F 15 Aboubakar Gakou 2 3 0 C 23 Nick Faust 24 3 4 Head coach: Sergio Valdeolmillos

Petro de Luanda Al Ahly Ly 0 Petro de Luanda Statistics [21] Al Ahly Ly 32/54 (59%) 2-pt field goals 23/44 (52%) 11/30 (36%) 3-pt field goals 8/19 (42%) 10/16 (62%) Free throws 24/32 (75%) 19 Offensive rebounds 8 28 Defensive rebounds 24 47 Total rebounds 32 27 Assists 18 12 Turnovers 14 9 Steals 4 2 Blocks 3 26 Fouls 17 2024 BAL champions Petro de Luanda 1st BAL title; 3rd continental title

Starters: Pts Reb Ast PG 4 Kevin Murphy 7 4 2 SG 12 Trae Golden 21 3 8 SF 15 Mahmoud Benalhaj 0 1 1 PF 28 Majok Deng 24 4 2 C 41 Jo Lual-Acuil 15 9 1 Reserves: G 2 Assane Mandian DNP G 6 Andrees Zeew DNP G 7 Rasheed Alrashidi DNP G 10 Solo Diabate 20 2 4 F 14 Asmaeil Aljahmi DNP F 24 Sofian Hamad 2 2 2 F/C 34 Ghayth Almaghribi DNP F/C 50 Omarr Aldirfeeli DNP Head coach: Ivan Jeremić

Aftermath

Following the game, Al Ahly Ly's center Jo Lual-Acuil was named the BAL Most Valuable Player, becoming the second South Sudanese and the first player on a non-championship team to win the award. ^[22] Sergio Valdeolmillos became the second Spaniard to win a BAL championship, following Augustí Julbe who had won the league two times before.

References

1. "Petro Atletico - Al Ahly Betting Odds, Basketball - BAL". Oddsportal.com. Retrieved 3 June 2024.
2. "Petro de Luanda are the 2024 BAL Champions". The BAL. 1 June 2024. Retrieved 2 June 2024.
3. "How did Al Ahly Ly and Petro de Luanda make it to the 2024 BAL Final?". The BAL. Retrieved 30 May 2024.
4. "Petro de Luanda vs Al Ahly Ly - Who will win the 2024 BAL title game?". The BAL. Retrieved 3 June 2024.
5. "Basketball Africa League and Rwanda Development Board announce multi-year extension to play BAL games in Kigali". NBA.com: NBA Communications. 19 June 2023. Retrieved 23 September 2023.
6. "Jornal de Angola - Notícias - Petro de Luanda conquista 16º título". Jornal de Angola (in Portuguese). Retrieved 22 April 2023.
7. "Yanick Moreira returns to Petro de Luanda". VerAngola. 5 December 2023. Retrieved 6 December 2023.
8. Yange, Joelson (16 October 2023). "Edmir Lucas: Petro anuncia mais um reforço de peso". Baller.ao (in European Portuguese). Retrieved 23 January 2024.
9. "Burundi's Dynamo BC out of BAL over Visit Rwanda protest". ESPN.com. 12 March 2024. Retrieved 14 March 2024.
10. "José Neto deixa comando técnico do campeão nacional de basquetebol" (in European Portuguese). Retrieved 21 March 2024.
11. grxnet.com. "Jornal de Angola - Notícias - Sérgio Valdeolmillos substitui José Neto". Jornal de Angola (in Portuguese). Retrieved 31 March 2024.
12. "Lahyani's game-winning buzzer beater confirms US Monastir's revival". The BAL. 25 May 2024. Retrieved 28 May 2024.
13. "Faust sends Petro de Luanda to the 2024 BAL Semifinals". The BAL. 27 May 2024. Retrieved 28 May 2024.
14. "Petro see off resilient Cape Town Tigers in overtime to return to the BAL Final". The BAL. Retrieved 30 May 2024.
15. "Al Ahly Benghazi pick last ticket from the West Division to the BAL 2024 season". FIBA.basketball. 5 November 2023. Retrieved 6 November 2023.
16. "Robert Golden's five three-pointers sink Cape Town in the opener of the 2024 BAL Playoffs". The BAL. 24 May 2024. Retrieved 28 May 2024.
17. "Robert Golden's five three-pointers sink Cape Town in the opener of the 2024 BAL Playoffs". The BAL. 24 May 2024. Retrieved 28 May 2024.
18. "The BAL throne is vacant as Al Ahly Ly eliminate reigning champions Al Ahly SC". The BAL. Retrieved 28 May 2024.
19. "Al Ahly Ly are one win away from the 2024 BAL title". The BAL. Retrieved 30 May 2024.
20. "Petro de Luanda beat Al Ahly Ly to win BAL title". ESPN.com. 3 June 2024. Retrieved 6 June 2024.
21. "LiveStats". geniussports.com. Retrieved 6 June 2024.
22. "Acuil-Jr. dominates 2024 BAL Awards". The BAL. 1 June 2024. Retrieved 3 June 2024.