BAL Day 3
Dakar Universite Club vs. Clube Ferroviario de Beira
DUC Head Coach Parfait Adjivon remained defiant after his team’s second defeat in as many games in the Sahara Conference on Tuesday at Dakar Arena.
“We have three big finals to play, and our objective of qualifying to the playoffs remains intact,” said Adjivon whose team dropped to 0-2 following a 98-92 loss to Ferroviário da Beira.
The Mozambican champions stepped on the floor reminding everyone that they were on a mission and a 6-0 run to start the game reflected their intentions in a game that registered seven lead changes.
But with home fans like the DUC’s, a team can’t give up easily and anything can happen. The enthusiastic fans didn’t stop to support their heroes for a second, and the team managed to turn things around and headed to the locker room with a 53-50 lead.
Somehow, Beira – inspired by Jermelle Kennedy – readjusted after the break and they went to lead by as many as 79-68 at the end of the third quarter.
Kennedy powered Beira with a performance for the ages. He had a 8-for-13 shooting to finish with a game-high 27 points and a team-best 9 rebounds.
William Perry added 16 points, Ayade Munguambe contributed 15 points off the bench, Prince Orizu won the painted area battle to go with 12 points and 5 rebounds as Beira improved their Sahara Conference record to 1-1 ahead of the clash against AS Salé of Morocco.
Kennedy said: “It was big win for us. We needed to bounce back. Losing is always a bad. We didn’t like that. We’ve adjusted and got the win. We went to zone [defense]. It disrupted them and we went up 15 points.
“That’s the first thing at halftime. ‘Guys, relax, go there and enjoy. It’s always easy when you’re having fun.”
As much as DUC tried to find answers to Beira’s questions, the Dakar-based team couldn’t find them, especially in the battle near the basket when Beira outrebounded DUC 45-33.
“In two games we were winning at halftime. I don’t’ really know what it is. I don’t know if it’s energy. We have to figure those third quarters out,” DUC’s Hameed Ali said in the postgame press conference.
Ali did a bit of everything to help DUC come up with a win, but his team-high 26 points and six assists proved fruitless.
“We are hungry. We are to going to watch film, fix our mistakes and learn from our mistakes. I don’t think any team in this league is unbeaten. We are not giving in. We are here to fight and the playoffs remains our main goal.”
Adjivon recalled that DUC “has no tactical problems. Not everything was bad. We just need to keep on improving,” he said.
Beira head coach Luis Hernandez said: “It was an important to win this game to boost the teams’ morale. Nobody likes to start a competition with a loss. We lost no the [BAL] runners-up from last season, we played well, but we fell short.
“We are more confident, and this is the position we wanted to be after the loss to Monastir.
“In the first half we were very excited. We were chasing them, especially in the second quarter. That was not our style of play. My message to my players was that [we] needed to play our game, move the ball, create shot opportunities and it worked.”
Seydou Legacy Athletique Club vs. Union Sportive Monastirienne
Watch the full game below.
Chris Obekpa may have opened the score line with a thunderous dunk over Ater Majok, but it was a short-lived lead for SLAC who struggled to deal with US Monastir’s ruthlessness.
The Tunisian champions stepped on the floor in a desperation mode, playing a suffocating defense that prevented SLAC from executing their game plan in the offense.
It came as no surprise that Obekpa admitted that US Monastir “outplayed us from the beginning to the end,” the Nigerian international player said to bal.nba.com after his team’s 76-55 defeat.
SLAC didn’t look the same team that upset hosts DUC in the Sahara Conference opener on Saturday.
They looked idealess and lacked aggressiveness on both ends of the floor.
But what hurt Zeljko Zecevic’s team the most was US Monastir’s aggressive defense which forced SLAC into several shot clock violations.
US Monastir’s full court defense pressure paved the way for the Tunisian side’s second win in as many games.
And having SLAC’s leading scorer Chris Crawford as their main target worked to perfection.
Crawford picked his third foul with five minutes left in the second quarter, and that hindered SLAC’s chances to stay in the game.
With Zecevic forced to take Crawford out of the game to protect him from reaching his foul limit, US Monastir not only kept SLAC scoreless for the remaining five minutes of the first half, but they also used a 10-0 run to go to the locker room with a comfortable 44-25 lead.
The question was whether or not SLAC would pull off an improbable come back.
SLAC cut the point-gap to 55-40 with 2:13 minutes left in the third quarter, but that was the closest they got to US Monastir as the Tunisians went on to lead by as many as 23 points at some stage in the game.
“It’s just a learning process. Now we go back to watching film, training and get ready for the next game. We just need to correct our mistakes and fix them,” said Obekpa who finished with 13 points and 11 rebounds.
By halftime Majok had already contributed 12 points and 10 rebounds, his second double-double in the Sahara Conference before adding four more rebounds to help US Monastir improve to 2-0 in the Sahara Conference.
“It’s always fun. We have been playing against each other for years now. That’s my brother. It’s always fun battling against him,” Obekpa said.
It’s not just cliché to refer to Radhouane Slimane’s age as just a number. The man who turns 42 in August buried 3 of his 6 three-point attempts to lead his team with 15 points.
Oussama Marnaoui was 3-for-6 from behind the arc to finish with 13 points and Firas Lahyani was 5-for-8 from the floor to contribute 13 points for US Monastir.
With 3 minutes left and trailing by 20, SLAC Zecevic took his starting line-up out of the game, a sign of surrender.
“I was given a defensive role today to guard Chris Crawford to prevent him from scoring. I am glad that I got the job done,” Marnaoui said.
“We have tried to keep him away from screens because he likes shooting off pick-and-roll, and he doesn’t like to be under full court defensive pressure.”
With three games left to play in the Sahara Conference and a playoff spot looking more and more certain, Marnaoui insisted that “It was a great a win for us. It’s important for the team’s mindset moving forward in the competition. We are glad that we got the job done and I am excited to have been able to help (the team) stay perfect.”
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