Nigeria's Rivers Hoopers claimed their second win in as many games at the Basketball Africa League (BAL) Sahara Conference, beating Rwanda's APR 86-82, while Senegal's AS Douanes recovered from their opening day defeat on home soil with a 76-59 win over Tunisia's US Monastir.
Fresh off Saturday's upset wins over Monastir and Douanes respectively, APR and Rivers Hoopers took to the court first on Sunday for the afternoon tip-off.
Will Perry led the scoring early on for the Nigerian champions and Dario Hunt for their Rwandan counterparts. Rivers Hoopers took a slender 19-18 lead into the break at the end of the first quarter.
The second quarter saw a similar trading of blows and the teams went into half-time level at 40-40.
Devine Eke had been Rivers Hoopers' star on Saturday, but Perry was the player on top form on Sunday as he and APR's Obadiah Noel led the way for their respective teams. Rivers Hoopers led 63-62 at the end of the third quarter. Having gone to overtime to beat US Monastir, APR looked like they might have to gear up for yet another protracted fight.
However, Rivers Hoopers took full control in the fourth quarter to ensure the game did not go that far. Despite Noel scoring 32 points and APR's attempts at a late comeback, Rivers Hoopers had given them too much work to do and saw out an 86-82 win, with Perry scoring 31 points and Eke 19.
"Just being locked in [made the difference]. [In the late] timeout, everybody is communicating -- coaches, players. I feel like this team is here to do some amazing things -- it was just a team effort today," Eke said in the mixed zone after the game.
"When everybody signed, we all formed a group chat and said we have one goal and one goal only. We don't care who gets the most points, who gets the most assists, who gets the most rebounds -- we're just here to win," he added, warning that his team is aiming for a championship.
Certainly, they have taken a huge step towards sealing an automatic qualification berth for the playoffs in Kigali (May 24 - June 1) -- one of two on offer in Dakar with the potential of a third depending on rankings relative to those in previous conferences in Pretoria and Cairo.
In the evening game, US Monastir took a 17-12 lead in the first quarter with Oussama Marnaoui leading the early scoring.
In the second quarter, Douanes fought back, with Abdoulaye Harouna and Jean-Jacques Boissy looking more like their usual selves than they had on Saturday. A Boissy dunk on the fast break gave Douanes the lead close to half-time. They went into the break 32-31 to the good and with all still to play for.
The teams traded blows in the second half with Douanes starting strong and Monastir clawing their way back. Harouna led the scoring, with Madut Akec's rebounds also coming in handy for the hosts, while George Williams spearheaded the Monastir attack and Ater Majok collected boards.
In the fourth quarter, the Senegalese fans got behind the home team, with their trademark percussion instruments reverberating around the arena.
A three-pointer from Harouna with just over five and a half minutes to play put Douanes 58-52 to the good and drew one of the loudest cheers of the night.
Despite some bright moments from local hero Boissy, Harouna drew most of the applause with an incredible performance, scoring 35 of his team's 76 points.
On Tuesday, Douanes will host APR after a desperate Monastir side takes on Rivers Hoopers, with the 2022 BAL champions having suddenly turned from favourites to underdogs.