KIGALI, Rwanda -- Libya's Al Ahli Tripoli became the first Nile Conference team to qualify for June's Basketball Africa League (BAL) playoffs in Pretoria with a 104-91 win over Kenya's Nairobi City Thunder (NCT) on Thursday.
They became the sixth team overall to ensure they will be competing in the seeding games and quarter-finals, joining Al Ittihad (Egypt), Rivers Hoopers (Nigeria), US Monastir (Tunisia), Petro de Luanda (Angola) and Kriol Star (Cape Verde).
Jean-Jacques Boissy starred once again off the bench with 26 points, while Mohamed Sadi scored 23. For NCT, the top scorer was Uchenna Iroegbu with 23, while Albert Odero scored 17.
The clash between the top and bottom teams in the conference began as expected - Ahli Tripoli controlled the opening minutes and raced into a 10-2 lead.
However, NCT clawed their way back and levelled at 22-22 at one point. Ahli Tripoli - led in the early stages by an in-form Deon Thompson - recovered to finish the quarter 32-24 ahead.
In Ahli Tripoli's previous victory over NCT earlier in the conference, they had set a BAL record with 115 points. The Kenyan side's defense was porous once again as they allowed Ahli Tripoli to race clear at the start of the second quarter. However, they were strong at the other end of the court and stayed in the fight.
As usual, Boissy took his time getting warmed up - but once he did, he took on a key role as Ahli Tripoli pulled clear again and took a 56-41 lead into half-time.
Shots were landing from all angles from Boissy and Sadi as they ran the score up to 83-59 in the third quarter.
Iroegbu was in hot shooting form for NCT and kept dropping dimes even with all hope of victory virtually extinguished as the clock ticked down in the final quarter.
However, it was too little, too late for the City Thunder - whose faint playoff hopes rest on the improbable possibility of them getting their first two wins of the season in their last two games.
The top two teams in the conference will qualify for June's Pretoria playoffs automatically, while the third-placed side will need a better record than that of FUS Rabat at their home Kalahari Conference. FUS went 2-4 in six games with a points difference of -19.