The 2023 Basketball Africa League (BAL) Playoffs will tip off this weekend on Saturday, May 20 at BK Arena in Kigali, Rwanda ahead of the Finals set for Saturday, May 27.
The top eight teams from the league’s Sahara and Nile Conference group phases in Dakar, Senegal and Cairo, Egypt, respectively, will compete in a single-elimination tournament with the winner crowned the third BAL champion.
The quarterfinals will kick on Saturday, with the first match between Stade Malien and the Cape Town Tigers then later on the day Al Ahly will take on Rwanda Energy Group.
On Sunday, AS Douanes will face Clube Ferroviário da Beira, followed by Club Atlético Petróleos de Luanda taking on Abidjan Basketball Club.
Saturday, May 20
– Stade Malien (Mali; 3-2) vs Cape Town Tigers (South Africa; 2-3) @ 4 p.m. SAST
– Al Ahly (Egypt; 4-1) vs Rwanda Energy Group (REG; 3-2) @ 7:30 p.m. SAST
Sunday, May 21
– AS Douanes (Senegal; 3-2) vs Clube Ferroviário da Beira (CFV – Beira; Mozambique; 2-3) @ 4 p.m. SAST
– Club Atlético Petróleos de Luanda (Petro de Luanda; Angola; 5-0) vs Abidjan Basketball Club (ABC Fighters; Côte d’Ivoire; 3-2) @ 7:30 p.m. SAST
All eight Playoff and Finals games will air live on American Forces Network (AFN), Canal+, ESPN (sub-Saharan Africa), NBA TV, Tencent, TV5 Monde, Visionary TV, Voice of America (VOA) and select free-to-air channels across the continent through the BAL’s broadcast partnership with the African Union of Broadcasting. The games will also livestream on NBA App, NBA.com, Visionview.tv and BAL.NBA.com. Fans can view the complete game schedule and purchase tickets at BAL.NBA.com.
The 2023 BAL Playoffs will feature six of the 10 leading scorers from group phase play:
– Najeal Young (CFV – Beira; U.S.) – 21.6 ppg
– Souleymane Berthe (Stade Malien; Mali) – 20.4 ppg
– Chris Crawford (AS Douanes; U.S.) – 20 ppg
– Nuni Omot (Al Ahly; South Sudan) – 19.4 ppg
– Abdoulaye Harouna (ABC Fighters; Niger) – 18.8 ppg
– Will Perry (CFV – Beira: U.S.) – 18.4 ppg
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