DAKAR, Senegal - Representing a nation of just over 500,000 people, Cape Verde's Kriol Star clinched their first ever Basketball Africa League (BAL) win by beating Sahara Conference hosts ASC Ville de Dakar (ASCVD) 66-63.
The win was made even more astonishing by the injury-enforced absence of star point guard Patrick McGlynn IV. Richaud Pack led the scoring for Kriol Star with 19 points, while owner-player Joel Almeida scored 16 and Ivan Almeida 13.
ASCVD's Will Perry was the highest scorer for either side with 23, but they were in vain as most of his teammates performed dismally.
The Cape Verdean side had got their debut BAL campaign off to a poor start with a 103-74 loss to Angola's Petro de Luanda on Saturday. ASCVD had a better first outing in the tournament, beating Tunisia's US Monastir 70-67.
However, Monastir threw the cat among the pigeons in Sunday's early tip-off with an 87-73 win over defending champions Petro.
Kriol Star started on the front foot with a 6-2 run thanks to back-to-back threes from Joel Almeida either side of a layup from Abdoulaye Harouna. However, ASCVD found a way back into the game with Ater Majok immense in the paint at both ends in the opening minutes.
Perry found his best shooting form towards the end of the quarter and ASCVD led 20-15 heading into the break. Rather than capitulating, Kriol Star kept fighting and went back in front midway through the second quarter.
Almeida brothers Ivan and Joel, along with Joel Ntambwe, ensured they remained competitive when contesting rebounds, while Joel Almeida continued to lead the scoring along with Parker. ASCVD stayed in the fight and levelled the scores before a Joel Almeida free throw sent Kriol Star into the half-time break 33-32 ahead.
The third quarter began with five quickfire points from Ivan Almeida. ASCVD tried to fight back, but the Almeida brothers and Pack led the way for Kriol Star as they remained in the driving seat. Ahead of the final quarter, Kriol Star led 53-46.
Fan-favourite Perry was at his brilliant best in the fourth quarter, pulling the strings as a shooter and a creator of opportunities. ASCVD fought their way back before Pape Djiby Boye's two-point pull up jump shot put them back in front 61-59.
At the other end, Mamadou Djibril Sakho made a huge block to deny Pack a leveller. The partisan crowd got behind ASCVD even more vocally, but ultimately, Ivan Almeida tied the game with two free throws.
ASCVD knocked on the door but the Kriol Star defense held firm. Perry eventually landed two free throws before Pack sank one at the other end and then Ivan Almeida another. Ivan Almeida then drove into the paint and landed a shot to put Kriol Star 65-63 up with 28.7 seconds left.
After a disallowed ASCVD basket, Pack landed one final free throw and Kriol Star held on for an historic win to leave all four teams on one win out of two. All of them have four still left to play, with the top two set to automatically qualify for June's playoffs in Pretoria along with the two best third-placed teams across three conferences.
"It says a lot about the character of my players because we had a tough loss yesterday and we are here to compete and win the most games possible," said Kriol Star head coach Hugo Salgado in the post-match press conference.
"The biggest adjustment we had to make was on ourselves. We had to focus on what we could do. Everybody can see that we have amazing quality on our team... It's just [about] clicking together."