BAL 24: Rivers Hoopers Battle AS Douanes In Seeding Game

BAL 24: Rivers Hoopers Battle AS Douanes In Seeding Game 

Precious Oham

Nigeria's representatives at the 2024 Basketball Africa League (BAL), Rivers Hoopers, will battle AS Douanes of Senegal in one of the four seeding games in the playoffs in Kigali next week, BSNSports.com.ng reports. 

The two teams played against each other twice in the Sahara Conference held last week in Dakar with each winning one of the ties.

Unlike previous formats where teams advanced straight to the knockout stage (quarterfinals), teams have been paired based on their performance across all three conferences in this season's playoffs.

The KingsMen, who won the Sahara Conference, are third on the overall standings behind Kalahari Conference champions FUS Rabat of Morocco in second and Nile Conference champions Al Ahly of Egypt, who top the overall standings.

AS Douanes finished (4), Petro de Luanda (5), US Monastir (6), Al Ahly Libya (7) and Cape Town Tigers (8).

The winner between Hoopers and AS Douanes (Game 40) will play against the winner between Petro de Luanda and US Monastir (Game 39), while the loser of the tie will square up against the loser of Game 39 in the quarterfinal.

Other quarter-final seeding games will see Al Ahly take on FUS Rabat, Petro de Luanda face US Monastir, and Al Ahly Libya play Cape Town Tigers.

The seeding games will take place on 24-25 May, before the quarter-finals tip off on Sunday, 26 May at the BK Arena in Kigali.

Meanwhile, the KingsMen arrived in Lagos this week to continue preparation for the playoffs but will leave for Kigali later this weekend.