Senegal’s AS Douanes will face Egypt’s Al Ahly in the BAL final

Senegal’s AS Douanes will face Egypt’s Al Ahly in the 2023 Basketball Africa League (BAL) Finals on Saturday, May 27 at the BK Arena in Kigali, Rwanda. 

There will be a first-time BAL champion, and there is potential for the first BAL champion from West Africa in AS Douanes. 

The top eight teams from the league’s Sahara and Nile Conference group phases in Dakar, Senegal, and Cairo, Egypt, respectively, competed in a single-elimination tournament with the winner set to be crowned the third BAL champion.

Al Ahly is led by head coach Agustin Julbe Bosch (Spain), who led Egypt’s Zamalek to the BAL Championship in the league’s inaugural season in 2021.

2023 Egyptian Super League MVP and former Texas A&M-Corpus Cristi and University of Oregon guard Ehab Amin, who leads Al Ahly in points, rebounds, and assists in the playoffs. 

AS Douanes rallied from a 0-2 start in the Sahara Conference group phase in Dakar and have not lost since. 

Former NBA Academy Africa prospect Jean Jacques Boissy led AS Douanes with 28 points in their 92-86 semifinal victory over then-undefeated Petro de Luanda (Angola). 

At 16 years old, NBA Academy Africa prospect and BAL Elevate player Khaman Maluach from South Sudan is the youngest player ever to make the BAL Finals. 

The game will reach fans in 214 countries and territories in 17 languages, including all 54 countries in Africa, and will be live-streamed around the world on the NBA App and website.