2019 FIBA Africa Basketball League

The 2019 FIBA Africa Basketball League was the 33nd edition of FIBA Africa's premier club Basketball tournament and the 1st under the new format and new name. The season saw an expansion from twelve to sixteen teams.

Africa Basketball League
Season	2019
Dates	February 8 – May 26, 2019
Games played	24 (group stage) 12 (knockout phase)
Teams	42 (qualifying tournament) 16 (group stage)
Regular season
Season MVP	Eduardo Mingas (Primeiro de Agosto)
Finals
Champions	Primeiro de Agosto (9th title)
Runners-up	AS Salé
Third place	Smouha SC
Fourth place	JS Kairouan
Statistical leaders
Points Reggie Holmes (Al Ahly) 20.2 Rebounds Todd O'Brien (Al Ahly) 12.0 Assists Ahmed Dhif (Kairouan) 5.7 Efficiency Maodo Nguirane (Kairouan) 21.7
← 2017 2021 (BAL) →

The season began on February 8, 2019, and ended on May 26, 2019, with the conclusion of the Final Four. The Final Four was hosted at the Kilamba Arena in Luanda, Angola.

It was the last season of the league as the competition was replaced by the Basketball Africa League (BAL), a new competition jointly established by the National Basketball Association (NBA) and FIBA.

Competition format

FIBA Africa has increased the number of participating teams from twelve to sixteen.^[1] These teams get their ticket for the Africa Basketball League through regional qualifiers (Zone 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 of FIBA Africa).

The qualifiers for the Africa Basketball League Group stage was held from September and until mid-December 2018, while the final phase will take place from January 11 to April 21, 2019, in various African cities.

The 16 teams qualified for the round of 16 will be divided into 4 groups of 4 teams each and the competition will take place in the form of a championship where each team will face respectively the 3 opponents of his group. Then, the first two clubs in each group will qualify for the Elite 8 where the clubs will be divided into four groups of two teams each and then games will be played in a home and away format.^[2] At this stage, the competition will be played in a one-way match against the principle of direct elimination. The Four winners will advance to the Final 4, that will be played on April 20 while the final take place the next day.^[3]

Qualification tournament

Zone	Qualified teams	Eliminated teams
Zone 1	ES Radès AS Salé JS Kairouan	Wydad AC Al Ahly Tripoli Ittihad Tripoli
Zone 2	SLAC	MBC USFAS Bamako
Zone 3	Rivers Hoopers Civil Defenders Elan Sportif	Custom Braves Harbel Pointer AS Police
Zone 4	BC Terreur ASB Mazembe	CAS 1987 Le Phoenix San Antonio Jet 7 CB
Zone 5	Al Ahly, Smouha, REG	Ethiopia Water Wolekite City KPA Strathmore Patriots JKT Oilers
Zone 6	Ferroviário da Beira, Primeiro de Agosto, Petro Luanda	Ferroviário de Maputo Bravehearts Central Knight Harare City Hornets Foxes
Zone 7	COSPN	Premium Cobras Mahebourg Flippers Beau Vallon Heat

Teams

A total of 16 teams from 10 countries will contest the league.

Venues and locations

ES Radès

AS Salé

JS Kairouan

SLAC

Hoopers

Defenders

Elan

BC Terreur

BC Mazembe

Al Ahly

Smouha

Ferroviário

1º Agosto

Petro

COSPN

REG

Location of teams in 2018–19 FIBA AfroLeague

Team	Home city	Arena	Capacity
AS Salé	Salé	Salle El Bouâzzaoui	2,000
ES Radès	Tunis	Salle Taoufik-Bouhima	3,500
JS Kairouan	Kairouan	Salle Aziz Miled	2,000
SLAC	Conakry	Palais de Sport du Stade du 28 Septembre	–
Rivers Hoopers	Port Harcourt	Rivers State Basketball Complex	2,000
Civil Defenders	Abuja	Abuja Sports Hall	3,000
Elan Sportif	Porto-Novo	Hall des Arts Loisirs et Sports Boulevard Saint-Michel[a]	–
BC Terreur	Kinshasa	Martyrs Sports Complex	2,000
BC Mazembe	Lubumbashi		–
Al Ahly	Cairo	Al Ahly Sports Hall	3,500
Smouha	Alexandria	Ittihad Sports Arena	2,000
Ferroviário da Beira	Beira	Estádio do Ferroviário Indoor Hall	–
Primeiro de Agosto	Luanda	Pavilhão Victorino Cunha	1,500
Petro de Luanda	Luanda	Pavilhão da Cidadela	6,873
COSPN	Antananarivo	Palais des Sports Mahamasina	7,090
REG	Kigali	Amahoro Indoor Stadium	2,500

1. Despite being from Porto-Novo, Elan Sportif hosted the team games at the Hall des Arts Loisirs et Sports Boulevard Saint-Michel (H.A.L.S.) in Cotonou.

Schedule

Phase	Round	Draw date	Games
Group stage		January 12, 2019	February 8 – March 10, 2019
Elite 8	First leg		March 22, 2019
	Second leg		April 14, 2019
Final Four	Semi-finals	April 27, 2019	May 24 and May 26, 2019
	Final and third place

Group stage

The draw was held in Abidjan on 12 January 2019.^[4]

The two teams with the best records for each group qualified to Elite 8.^[5]

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	AS Salé (H)	3	3	0	272	222	+50	6	Advance to Elite 8
2	JS Kairouan	3	2	1	241	212	+29	5
3	Rivers Hoopers	3	1	2	205	254	−49	4
4	SLAC	3	0	3	233	263	−30	3

Source: FIBA
(H) Hosts

Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	ES Radès	3	3	0	236	187	+49	6	Advance to Elite 8
2	Civil Defenders	3	2	1	209	213	−4	5
3	Élan Sportif (H)	3	1	2	193	207	−14	4
4	Terreur	3	0	3	185	216	−31	3

Source: FIBA
(H) Hosts

Group C

Main article: 2018–19 Africa Basketball League Group C

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Primeiro de Agosto	3	3	0	243	196	+47	6	Advance to Elite 8
2	Al Ahly (H)	3	2	1	241	239	+2	5
3	REG	3	1	2	226	225	+1	4
4	Ferroviário da Beira	3	0	3	209	259	−50	3

Source: FIBA
(H) Hosts

Group D

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Smouha	3	3	0	276	177	+99	6	Advance to Elite 8
2	Petro de Luanda	3	2	1	235	216	+19	5
3	ASB Mazembe	3	1	2	220	222	−2	4
4	COSPN (H)	3	0	3	196	312	−116	3

Source: FIBA
(H) Hosts

Knockout phase

Bracket

	Elite 8						Final four						Final
	AS Salé	69	96	165
	Civil Defenders	69	77	146
							AS Salé			81
							JS Kairouan			73
	ES Radès	67	73	140
	JS Kairouan	68	74	142
													AS Salé			71
													Primeiro de Agosto			83
	Primeiro de Agosto	70	74	144
	Petro	57	57	114
							Primeiro de Agosto			86
							Smouha			76			Third place
	Al Ahly	82	88	170
	Smouha	91	88	179
													JS Kairouan			58
													Smouha			69

Elite 8

The Elite 8 games were played in a home and away basis from March 22, to April 14, 2019.^[6]

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Civil Defenders	146–165	AS Salé	69–69	77–96
JS Kairouan	142–140	ES Radès	68–67	74–73
Petro de Luanda	114–144	Primeiro de Agosto	57–70	57–74
Smouha	179–163	Al Ahly	91–82	88–81

Final Four

On 19 April 2019, the Kilamba Arena in Luanda, Angola was announced as host of the Final Four.^[7] The draw was held on 27 April 2019 in Abidjan.^[8]

Semifinals

AS Salé v JS Kairouan

24 May 2019	AS Salé	81–73	JS Kairouan	Luanda
	Scoring by quarter: 19–20, 27–15, 19–17, 16–21
	Pts: Wood 27 Rebs: Choua 10 Asts: El Ghazi, El Mahsini 4 each Eff: Kourdou 24	Boxscore	Pts: Gilbert 24 Rebs: Nguirane 14 Asts: Dhif 7 Eff: Slimane 19	Arena: Kilamba Arena

Primeiro de Agosto v Smouha

24 May 2019	Primeiro de Agosto	86–76	Smouha	Luanda
	Scoring by quarter: 20–25, 24–12, 30–17, 12–22
	Pts: Harris 24 Rebs: Mingas 12 Asts: Costa, Quezada 7 Eff: Mingas 35	Boxscore	Pts: Justice Jr. 23 Rebs: Sarhan 6 Asts: Justice Jr. 5 Eff: Justice Jr. 20	Arena: Kilamba Arena

Third place game

JS Kairouan v Smouha

26 May 2019	JS Kairouan	58–69	Smouha	Luanda
18:30	Scoring by quarter: 14–24, 12–13, 17–17, 15–15
	Pts: Gilbert, Kochat 15 each Rebs: Gilbert 14 Asts: Dhif 4 Eff: Kochat 19	Boxscore	Pts: Justice Jr. 22 Rebs: Okosun 15 Asts: Justice Jr. 3 Eff: Okosun 23	Arena: Kilamba Arena

Final

Main article: 2019 Africa Basketball League Final

AS Salé v Primeiro de Agosto

26 May 2019	AS Salé	71–83	Primeiro de Agosto	Luanda
18:30	Scoring by quarter: 17–26, 17–16, 19–13, 18–28
	Pts: Arnold 21 Rebs: Najah 13 Asts: El Mahsini 5 PIR: Najah 18	Boxscore	Pts: Mingas Rebs: Mingas 11 Asts: Quezada 7 PIR: Quezada 21	Arena: Kilamba Arena Attendance: 5,500[9]

Awards

The individual awards were announced on May 26, after the conclusion of the final.

• Most Valuable Player: Eduardo Mingas (Primeiro de Agosto)^[10]
• All-Star Team:^[11]
  • Eduardo Mingas (Primeiro de Agosto)
  • Soufiane Kourdou (AS Salé)
  • Manny Quezada (Primerio de Agosto)
  • Abderrahim Najah (AS Salé)
  • James Justice Jr. (Smouha)

Statistics

Statistics as of the ending of the season.^[12]

Individual statistical leaders

Category	Player	Team(s)	Statistic
Efficiency per game	Maodo Nguirane	JS Kairouan	21.7
Points per game	Reggie Holmes	Al Ahly	20.2
Rebounds per game	Todd O'Brien		14.0
Assists per game	Ahmed Dhif	JS Kairouan	5.7
Steals per game	Reggie Holmes	Al Ahly	2.6
Blocks per game	Mohamed Choua	AS Salé	2.0
Turnovers per game	James Justice Jr.	Smouha	3.0
Minutes per game			34.1
FG%	Augustine Okosun		59.0%
3P%	Ahmed Azab Farag		60.0%
Double-doubles	Maodo Nguirane	JS Kairouan	4
	Todd O'Brien	Al Ahly

Individual game highs

Category	Player	Team(s)	Statistic
Efficiency	Eduardo Mingas	Primeiro de Agosto	35
	Abderrahim Najah	AS Salé
Points	Manny Quezada	Primeiro de Agosto	36
Rebounds	Aubin Junior Kasongo	BC Mazembe	23
Assists	Yassine El Mahsini	AS Salé	13
Steals	Carlos Cabral	Primeiro de Agosto	8
Blocks	Nick West	ES Radès	5
Turnovers	Engelbert Beleck	REG	8
2-point field goals	Elhadji Mbodji	ES Radès	12
3-point field goals	Reggie Holmes	Al Ahly	7