Basketball Africa League

Result

Al Ahly 99 Oilers 76

Al Ahly 93 Libya Bangui 71

Today, Hassan Mostafa Indoor Sports Complex

Oilers v Bangui (4pm)

Al Ahly v Al Ahly Benghazi (7pm)

The occasion stared with an award for the City Oilers, as point guard Tony Drileba received the Basketball Africa League (BAL) UBUNTU Award on centre court in the Hassan Mostafa Arena in Cairo.

It ended with a reminder from Al Ahly as to why they own the biggest accolade in African basketball.

Ehab Amin drained a team-high 16 points and Mark Lyons, Mohammed Elmaraghy and Prince Ali added 14, 13 and 12 points respectively as the BAL defending champions got their campaign off to a smashing start with a 99-76 victory over the Oilers.

It was a sumptuous display from the Kings of African basketball, who, on the evidence of this display, will take some stopping from winning it all again.

“To be honest, this team has so many weapons,” conceded Oilers coach Karim Nesba, whose side was led by Patrick Rembert with a game-high 21 points. “You have to defend everything. But they made 15 threes – it’s hard to defend everything. Defensively we missed a couple of rotations on our pick and roll defence.”

The Oilers started well, taking a 16-13 lead with 3:45 left to play in the first quarter, with BAL additions Culpepper (16 points) and Bashir Mohammed (14) carrying the scoring load. Following a timeout for Al Ahly, the game turned for good.  

They scored the next points 19 points and never looked troubled thereafter.

“When you play a team like Al Ahly in Egypt you basically have to play a perfect game,” Nesba added. “They make you pay for every mistake, offensively or defensively. They are very disciplined. They try to get the best shot, not just the first shot. I think they played all year together, so you can see how used to playing together they are.”

Nesba’s counterpart Agustin Bosch told New Vision Sports that Al Ahly came into the game aware of what happened last year when the two teams faced off, when a 30-point lead for the Egyptians was whittled down to the very last possession, as the Oilers mounted a furious rally.

”We mentioned it during the meeting today,” said Bosch, who added that as good as his team played, he expects improvement.  

“This is the first day of the tournament,” said Bosch. “It will be bad for us if this is our peak, our best performance. I hope we get better and better.”

As for Drileba, there was disappointment for the bittersweet nature of his day, but he could still savour an honour for his long years of service to disadvantaged communities.

“Very disappointed to walk out of the gym without the award tonight,” said Drileba, “but as regards to the award, this is what I have been doing for nearly a decade now.

"The things I do, I never did for the recognition because for me it is just a passion, but to get a recognition like this is a very big deal. I think it sheds a lot of light on the that work I have been doing, but not just me but for every individual that wins the award every year.”

For Drileba and the Oilers, there is plenty of basketball work to do, if they are to qualify for the BAL playoffs. A victory today against Central Africa’s Bangui SC, humbled yesterday 93-71by Al Ahly Benghazi is imperative.