Angola’s Petro de Luanda made history on Monday by becoming the first team to qualify for every Basketball Africa League (BAL) semifinals since the league’s inception four seasons ago, thanks to a dramatic 66-65 victory over AS Douanes.
The Angolan champions were on the brink of elimination when Nicholas Faust delivered two pivotal plays that shifted the game’s momentum.
With the shot clock showing 38.4 seconds remaining, Faust sank a three-pointer to tie the game at 64-64. AS Douanes’ guard Jean Jacques Boissy briefly regained the lead for his team by making one of two free throws with 22 seconds left.
However, Faust’s lay-up with just 8 seconds on the clock secured Petro de Luanda’s incredible comeback victory.
Despite trailing 28-25 at halftime, AS Douanes dominated the third quarter, building a commanding 20-point lead (62-42).
Nevertheless, Petro de Luanda mounted one of the biggest comebacks in BAL history to advance to the semifinals for the fourth consecutive season, refusing to see their campaign end at the hands of AS Douanes for the second year in a row.
AS Douanes can only blame themselves for their failure to secure a back-to-back semifinal appearance. Sloppy plays and Petro de Luanda’s aggressive defense in the final quarter led to nine turnovers and three missed free throws in the last ten minutes of the game, sealing their fate.
Reflecting on the match, Petro de Luanda forward Markeith Cummings, who contributed 9 points, said, “It was either all or nothing. We were down 20; What did we have to lose? We were going out with a bang. So, we played more aggressively defensively, and that’s how we won the game.”
Cummings further elaborated on their remarkable victory: “We came out with no energy in the third quarter. The whole time I was telling guys they had to believe until the end. I wasn’t ready to go home right now. We just showed what we are capable of as a team.”
The bench players of Petro de Luanda were crucial in overturning the game, outscoring AS Douanes’ bench 31-4. Faust, who played the role of rescuer, finished as the only Petro de Luanda player in double figures, scoring a team-high 13 points.
Despite Boissy’s game-high 28 points and Abdoulaye Harouna’s 15 points, AS Douanes couldn’t maintain their lead. “Maybe we were playing not to lose instead of playing to win,” admitted Mike Fofana, who played the entire game and finished with 11 points. “We were a little stagnant. They made more plays than we did, that’s how we lost it.”
Petro de Luanda will face the Cape Town Tigers in the semifinals on Wednesday, May 29, while AS Douanes head home with a 4-4 record for the season.
Source: BAL
