By Kayode Adegbile
Nigeria’s representatives at the 2024 Basketball Africa League (BAL), Rivers Hoopers will face AS Douanes of Senegal in one of the four seeding games in the playoffs.
The upcoming match between Rivers Hoopers and AS Douanes follows their previous encounters in the Sahara Conference held last week in Dakar, Senegal.
Away from former formats, teams are now paired based on their overall performance across all three conferences in this season’s playoffs, rather than advancing straight to the knockout stage which is the quarterfinals.
Champions of the Sahara Conference,the Rivers Hoopers currently occupy the third position in the overall standings.They are behind FUS Rabat of Morocco, champions of the Kalahari Conference, in second place, and Al Ahly of Egypt, winners of the Nile Conference, who lead the standings.
AS Douanes secured the fourth spot in the rankings, followed by Petro de Luanda (5th), US Monastir (6th), Al Ahly Libya (7th), and Cape Town Tigers (8th).
The outcome of the match between Rivers Hoopers and AS Douanes which is game 40 will determine their opponents in the quarterfinals.
The winner will face the winner between Petro de Luanda and US Monastir (Game 39), while the loser will confront the loser of Game 39 in the quarterfinal.
Other seeding games include clashes between Al Ahly and FUS Rabat, Petro de Luanda and US Monastir, Libya take on Cape Town Tigers.
