Luanda - Petro de Luanda beat AS Douanes of Senegal on Monday night, by 66-65, in a frantic challenge and reached the semi-finals of the African Basketball League (BAL).
Losing by 20 points, the Angolan champions were resilient in the recovery and scored in the last seconds the two points that worthed the victory, which was somewhat unexpected.
In this quarter-final clash, the North American shooting guard, Nicolas Faust, hired by the Angolan club specifically for this competition, was decisive, having scored the draw point in the final and then the two victory points.
The Angolans, chronic title contenders, took the lead in the opening quarter by 13-8, but with a very poor team.
In the following quarter they maintained a 28-25 advantage, against an opponent who was constantly changing their five on the court.
In the 3rd period, Douanes proved to be the runner-up in title. He changed his entire game, equaling the score for the first time by 28 points and from then on he never left behind on the scoreboard.
Petro de Luanda ended up making an extraordinary recovery of twenty points, with Nicolas Fauls scoring a three-point shot and equaling the score at 64 points, with 38 seconds left in the game.
On Petro's side, the successive uncertainties in both defense and attack left clear signs that they would not reach the semi-finals, which happened in the final moments with a narrow 66-65 victory.
With 13 points, 2 rebounds and the same number of assists, Nicholas Faust was the best scorer of the Angolan team, followed by Yanick Moreira, with 9 points and the same number of rebounds, in addition to 3 assists.
The North American Markeith Cummings also stood out, with 9 points, 4 rebounds and one assist, as did Glofate Buiamba, who scored 8 points, 3 rebounds and 5 assists.
In the semi-final, on Wednesday, Petro will face the Cape Town Tigers from South Africa.
This is the Angolan squad's fourth attempt at reaching the title, after 3rd place back in 2021, second in 2022 and fourth on 2023.
To remind that Al Ahly from Egypt, defending champions, failed to reach the semi-finals, after two defeats.
WR/MC/CF/jmc
