RABAT, Morocco -- Egypt's Al Ittihad maintained their perfect record in the Basketball Africa League (BAL) Kalahari Conference, beating Mali's Stade Malien 91-68 in Thursday's early tip-off at the Prince Moulay Abdellah Sports Complex.
The win left Ittihad with one foot in the playoffs. If Nigeria's Rivers Hoopers beat conference hosts FUS Rabat in the late tip-off, Ittihad will officially be through.
The participating teams in the conference had all played each other once prior to tip off and will now each face off a second time. The two highest-ranked teams in each of the three conferences will qualify for the playoffs in Pretoria together with the two best third-placed teams across the three.
Ittihad came into their Thursday game with a perfect record from their first three fixtures, having edged Malien in their prior encounter in between comfortable wins over FUS Rabat and Rivers Hoopers. Stade Malien, meanwhile, had lost all of their opening three games.
After the win, Ittihad have no defeats with two games left. This means that Malien, with four losses from four, cannot catch them and FUS - who already have two losses - have to win all of their games to stand a chance.
As a result, any further defeat for FUS would see Ittihad automatically assured of a top two spot and thus automatic playoff qualification.
Even if - against all odds - they fell to third in their conference, it would be highly unlikely that Ittihad would not be among the two best third-placed teams. Thus, they can almost certainly start booking their tickets to Pretoria.
Stade Malien started well once again, taking a 9-5 lead, but as has often been the case, they lost momentum due to defensive lapses and Ittihad took a 20-15 lead by the end of the first quarter with Kyle Vinales leading the charge.
The Egyptian champions picked up where they left off at the start of the second quarter, quickly extending the lead to 26-15 and then 37-19. However, Mahamane Coulibaly inspired a 10-3 scoring run for Stade Malien in response. By half-time, Ittihad led 42-30.
Stade Malien were quickest out of the blocks in the third quarter and whittled the lead down to 48-41. Coulibaly and Mouhamed Doumbya were in top form offensively. However, it was at the other end that Ittihad caught Stade Malien slacking again, taking back momentum and stretching the score to 62-45.
The fourth quarter was mostly one-way traffic. Coulibaly did produce a monstrous dunk, but other than that, it was a disappointing end to a night for Stade Malien. The Bamako-based side was once again exposed for a lack of balance within the team.
They continue to produce flashes of brilliance, but in terms of structure and organisation, they are a long way from the side that stunned Africa by finishing third in 2023.
Ittihad, by contrast, are living up to their favourites tag. With King (22), Vinales (11), Majok Deng (11), Deng Deng (15) and Abdelhady Elraei Metwaly (12) all hitting double figures in terms of points, they were able to give Anas Mahmoud - who has been playing through an injury - a rest.
Coulibaly was the game's top scorer with 25, but against a team of Ittihad's depth, Stade Malien simply did not have enough firepower.
The BAL airs on ESPN's channels in Africa (Supersport 218 and 219, Starsat 248).