DAKAR, Senegal - Tunisia's US Monastir blew the Basketball Africa League (BAL) Sahara Conference wide open on Sunday with an 87-73 win over the defending champions, Angola's Petro de Luanda.
On Saturday, Petro had started their campaign with a 103-74 win over Kriol Star. Monastir, by contrast, had suffered a 70-67 loss to conference hosts ASC Ville de Dakar (ASCVD).
Petro began their second game as favourites and went on an 8-0 run in the opening minutes. However, as had been the case against Kriol Star, they lost momentum towards the end of the first quarter. Sharpshooter Babacar Sané was in fine form for Monastir, as was E.J. Anosike for Petro. The defending champions led 22-17 by the end of the first quarter.
Monastir started strongest in the second quarter, taking the lead around three minutes in. Petro rallied back with Patrick Gardner playing a key role as the lead swung back and forth. Ultimately, Monastir went into half-time 46-45 ahead.
Fuelled by Sané and Patrick Hardy Jr., Monastir extended their lead to 68-62 by the end of the third quarter. The Tunisian side came out of the blocks flying in the fourth with an Osiris Eldridge three-point jump shot, followed by two points from Andrew Tarekeyi Edogi and three from Radhouane Slimane.
Eldridge hit another three to extend the lead to 15 points and there was no way back from there for Petro. They tried to chip away in the last few minutes, but Monastir held on.
Eldridge (23 points, 5 assists, 4 rebounds), Sané (24 points, 6 rebounds) and Hardy Jr. (17 points, 9 assists, 3 rebounds) all had huge performances for the 2022 champions. Captain Slimane had said after the opening day defeat that the team could perform at a higher level with more time to gel and Monastir did not waste any time backing up his words on Sunday.
Petro head coach Sergio Valdeolmillos had been critical of his side's defensive performance even in the win over the Cape Verdean side on Saturday and viewed Sunday's defeat as the chickens coming home to roost.
"Yesterday, our defensive performance was horrible," he said "We knew the gameplan [against Monastir today]. We knew that Osiris and Hardy were the two key guys and we had them scouted. We knew what we were supposed to do and we didn't execute.
"As far as Babacar Sané; he only played seven minutes [in Monastir's first game] and we knew he was going to look to make an impact in the second game."
Petro will face ASCVD in their next game on Tuesday, while Monastir play Kriol Star. Then, the teams will each face each other a second time before the conference comes to a close.
The top two teams will automatically qualify, with the third going through if they have a better record than at least one other third-placed team across the three conferences.
The BAL airs on ESPN's channels in Africa (Supersport 218 and 219, Starsat 248).