2022 BAL season

The 2022 BAL season, also known as BAL Season 2, was the second season of the Basketball Africa League (BAL).^[1] The season began on 2 March 2022 and ended with the Finals on 28 May 2022.^[2][3] The group phase was played in the Dakar Arena in Dakar and the Hassan Moustafa Sports Hall in Cairo. The playoffs and finals were played in the BK Arena^[A] in Kigali for a second year in a row.

2022 BAL season
Season	2022
Dates	5 March – 28 May 2022
Games played	38
Teams	12
Regular season
Season MVP	Michael Dixon (US Monsatir)
Finals
Champions	US Monastir (1st title)
Runners-up	Petro de Luanda
Third place	Zamalek
Fourth place	FAP
Records
Biggest home win	39 points Monastir 106–67 Cape Town (22 May 2022)
Winning streak	6 games Zamalek
Highest attendance	10,000 2022 BAL finals

Tunisian club US Monastir won the finals to win its first-ever BAL title, after defeating Angolan club Petro de Luanda in the 2022 BAL Finals.^[5] As winners, Monastir qualified for the 2023 FIBA Intercontinental Cup.

Format

On December 9, 2021, the BAL announced a new format for the season, with an expansion of the number of total games to 38. The twelve qualified teams are divided over two conference of six teams, in which all teams play the other teams once. The top eight teams from both conferences advance to the playoffs, which remains a single-elimination tournament.^[2]

Team allocation

On 13 October 2021, FIBA announced the 26 teams from 26 countries which participate in the qualification round.^[6] Eventually, 8 teams withdrew from the qualifications.

• 1st, 2nd, etc.: Place in the domestic competition
• TH: Title holder
• CW: Cup winner
• QT: National qualification tournament

Group phase
ZamalekTH (1st)	US Monastir (1st)	DUC (1st)	Petro de Luanda (1st)
Rivers Hoopers (1st)[Note NGR]	REG (1st)[Note RWA]	AS Salé (1st)[Note MOR]
First qualifying round
WA Boufarik	AS Police (1st)	Prédio	City Oilers (1st)
SLAC (1st)	AOA (1st)	ASPAC (1st)	Nigelec
SOA (1st)	Espoir Fukash (CW)[Note COD]	FAP (1st)	Malabo Kings (1st)
Tondema (1st)	ASCUT (1st)	Cobra Sport	Hawassa City
Kurasini Heat (1st)	New Star	Cape Town Tigers (1st)	Ferroviário da Beira (QT)
Roche-Bois Warriors	Matero Magic	Mercenaries[Note ZIM]	Ulinzi Warriors (1st)
Brave Hearts (1st)

Notes

1. ^
   DR Congo (COD): In FIBA's team list of 13 October, 2020 national champions ASB Mazembe was announced to be the Congolese representative. However, the Fédération de basketball du Congo (FEBACO) eventually decided to enter 2021 champions Espoir Fukash.^[7]
2. ^
   Morocco (MOR): AS Salé was initially drawn into the second qualifying round, which it withdrew from. Later, the team was awarded the void spot left after the exclusion of the Rivers Hoopers of Nigeria.
3. ^
   Nigeria (NGR): Nigeria's Rivers Hoopers were excluded from the competition as FIBA Africa ruled the championship it won was not valid because it was not hosted by the Nigeria Basketball Federation.^[8].
4. ^
   Rwanda (RWA): The national champions from Rwanda were given direct qualification, as the country will host the semi-finals and finals. Morocco's representative, AS Salé, has been dropped from the six countries which qualified directly and will enter the Elite 16 of the qualifying tournament.^[9]
5. ^
   Zimbabwe (ZIM): The representative team from Zimbabwe, Mercenaries pulled out before its games in Group F started.^[10]

Teams

The twelve teams for the inaugural BAL season had to qualify in their domestic competitions to be able to play in the league, similar to other FIBA-organised competitions. Six teams qualify directly as domestic champions; six winners of the qualifying tournaments qualify as well.

Qualified teams

On 22 May 2020, Petro de Luanda was announced as the first qualified team for the 2021 BAL season. The Angolan FAB had abandoned the season due to the COVID-19 pandemic and awarded the team the place without naming it as champions.^[11] Four teams made their debut in the competition. On January 14, 2022, FIBA Africa decided to exclude the Rivers Hoopers as it stated that the Nigeria Basketball Federation failed to organise a national championship.^[12] The BAL chose to give AS Salé direct qualification to replace the Nigerian team. REG qualified directly for the regular season as Rwanda hosted the playoffs and finals.

The twelve teams were confirmed by the BAL on 9 December 2021.^[2]

Cape Town Tigers (South Africa), Cobra Sport (South Sudan), SLAC (Guinea) and Espoir Fukash (DR Congo) all were the first teams from their countries to play in the BAL.

Team	Home city	Qualified as	Qualified on	Previous BAL seasons	Arena	Capacity
Petro de Luanda	Luanda, Angola	Champions of the 2020–21 Angolan Basketball League	22 May 2020[11]	1 (2021)	Pavilhão da Cidadela	6,873
US Monastir	Monastir, Tunisia	Champions of the 2020–21 Championnat National A	8 August 2020	1 (2021)	Mohamed-Mzali Sports Hall	4,075
Zamalek	Giza, Egypt	Champions of the 2020–21 Egyptian Basketball Super League	28 June 2021	1 (2021)	Abdulrahman Fawzi Hall	4,000
DUC Dakar	Dakar, Senegal	Champions of the 2021 Nationale 1	8 August 2021[13]	Debut	Marius Ndiaye Stadium	3,000
REG	Kigali, Rwanda	Champions of the 2020–21 NBL Rwanda	30 October 2021[14]	Debut	Amahoro Indoor Stadium	2,000
AS Salé	Salé, Morocco	Champions of the 2020–21 Division Excellence	9 December 2021[2]	1 (2021)	Salle El Bouâzzaoui	2,000
Cobra Sport	Juba, South Sudan	Runners-up of East Division	10 December 2021[15]	Debut	Dr. Biar Sports Complex	N/A
Ferroviário da Beira	Beira, Mozambique	Winners of East Division	10 December 2021[15]	Debut	Estádio do Ferroviário Indoor Hall	N/A
SLAC	Conakry, Guinea	Runners-up of West Division	15 December 2021[16]	Debut	Palais des Sports du Stade du 28 Septembre	N/A
FAP	Yaoundé, Cameroon	Winners of West Division	15 December 2021[17]	1 (2021)	Yaoundé Multipurpose Sports Complex	5,263
Espoir Fukash	Kinshasa, DR Congo	Third place of West Division	16 December 2021[18]	Debut	N/A
Cape Town Tigers	Cape Town, South Africa	Third place of East Division	11 December 2021[α]	Debut	N/A

1. The third place game between Cape Town Tigers and New Star was supposed to be played on 11 December 2021, however, the game was cancelled after six players tested positive on COVID-19 hours before the tip-off.^[19] It was a later announced that Cape Town qualified as New Star was forced to forfeit.^[20]

Bold: the team won the BAL championship in that year.

Personnel and sponsorship

See also: 2022 BAL season rosters

Team	Head coach	Team captain
AS Salé	Liz Mills[21]	Yassine El Mahsini
Cape Town Tigers	Relton Booysen	Pieter Prinsloo
Cobra Sport	Manny Berberi[22]	Jared Harrington
DUC Dakar	Parfait Adjivon	Abel Diop
Espoir Fukash	Raven Mwimba	Rolly Fula
FAP	François Enyegue	Ebaku Akumenzoh
Ferroviário da Beira	Luis Lopez Hernandez	Armando Baptista
Petro de Luanda	José Neto	Carlos Morais
REG	Robert Pack[23]	Elie Kaje
SLAC	Željko Zečević	Mamadi Keita
US Monastir	Miodrag Perišić	Radhouane Slimane
Zamalek	Will Voigt	Mostafa Kejo

Foreign and Elevate players

Each BAL team was allowed to have four foreign players on its roster, including only two non-African players. Players in italics were signed only for the playoffs. If players have multiple nationalities, the nationality of an African nation is shown.

Each team also featured one player from the NBA Academy Africa, under the new BAL Elevate program.^[24]

Team	African		Non-African			Elevate player
	1	2	3	4
AS Salé	Abdoulaye Harouna[25]	Ousmane Drame[26]	Terrell Stoglin[25]	Álvaro Calvo Masa[25]		Nadir Bennis
Cape Town Tigers	Myck Kabongo[27]	Evans Ganapamo[27]	Billy Preston[27]	Cleanthony Early[28] (replaced Jamel Artis[27])		Matar Diop
Cobra Sport	Tom Wamukota[29]	—	Jared Harrington[30]	Leon Hampton[29]		Khaman Maluach
DUC	Abraham Sie[31]	Chadrack Lufile[32]	Hameed Ali[32]	Jordan Aboudou[32]		Babacar Sané
Espoir Fukash	—	—	Narcisse Ambanza[33]	—		Emmanuel Okorafor
FAP	Joel Almeida[34]	Abou Diallo[35]	Tyjhai Byers[34]	Deshaun Norman[34]		Ulrich Chomche
Ferroviário da Beira	—	—	Will Perry[36]	Jermel Kennedy[36]		Rueben Chinyelu
Petro de Luanda	Anderson Correia[37]	—	E. C. Matthews[38]	—		Thierry Darlan
REG	Pitchou Kambuy Manga[39]	Abdoulaye N'Doye[40]	Cleveland Thomas[39]	Anthony Walker[39]		Joy Ighovodja
SLAC	Josh Nzeakor[41]	Chris Obekpa[41]	Dane Miller Jr.[41]	Malcolm Griffin (replaced Chris Crawford[41])		Serigne Mbaye
US Monastir	Solo Diabate[42]	Ater Majok[43]	Michael Dixon[44]	Julius Coles Jr.[45]		Charles Loic Onana
Zamalek	D. J. Strawberry[46]	Ike Diogu[47]	Édgar Sosa[48]	Mikh McKinney[49]		Khadim Rassoul Mboup

Schedule

A press conference of the BAL in March 2022

Phase	Round	Draw date	Games
Qualifying	First round	13 October 2021	21–31 October 2021
	Elite 16	20 November 2021	6–16 December 2021
Group phase	Dakar	–	5–15 March 2022
	Cairo		9–19 April 2022
Playoffs	Quarter-finals		21–28 May 2022
	Semi-finals
	Final and third place

Qualifying tournaments

Main article: 2022 BAL qualification

The qualifying tournaments started on 21 October 2021 and ended on 16 December 2021, with 23 teams from 23 countries participating. Six teams qualified for the group phase.

Group phase

The group phase began on 5 March 2022 in the Dakar Arena in Dakar, where 15 games will be played. From 9 April to 19 April 2022, the group phase continued in Hassan Moustafa Sports Hall in Giza. The four best teams of each conference advanced to the playoffs.

Sahara Conference

Main article: 2022 BAL Sahara Conference

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	PD	PCT	Qualification		REG	USM	ASS	SLC	CFV	DUC
1	REG	5	4	1	431	423	+8	.800[a]	Advance to playoffs		—	77–74	91–87	83–81	—	—
2	US Monastir	5	4	1	397	355	+42	.800[a]			—	—	—	—	77–71	74–62
3	AS Salé	5	3	2	454	438	+16	.600			—	90–96	—	91–81	95–84	—
4	SLAC	5	2	3	392	394	−2	.400			—	55–76	—	—	90–74	—
5	Ferroviário da Beira	5	1	4	416	448	−32	.200[b]			89–94	—	—	—	—	98–92
6	DUC (H)	5	1	4	402	434	−32	.200[b]			92–86	—	86–91	70–85	—	—

Source: BAL, Afrobasket
(H) Hosts
Notes:

1. Head-to-head: REG 77–74 US Monastir on 14 March 2022.
2. Head-to-head: Ferroviário da Beira 98–92 DUC on 8 March 2022.

Nile Conference

Main article: 2022 BAL Nile Conference

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	PD	PCT	Qualification		ZAM	PDL	CTT	FAP	CBS	ESF
1	Zamalek (H)	5	5	0	444	367	+77	1.000	Advance to playoffs		—	85–72	—	77–63	80–63	—
2	Petro de Luanda	5	4	1	421	326	+95	.800			—	—	—	73–60	92–56	94–64
3	Cape Town Tigers	5	2	3	386	436	−50	.400[a]			77–101	61–90	—	—	—	—
4	FAP	5	2	3	341	347	−6	.400[a]			—	—	70–73	—	71–64	77–60
5	Cobra Sport	5	1	4	370	408	−38	.200[b]			—	—	79–83	—	—	108–82
6	Espoir Fukash	5	1	4	394	472	−78	.200[b]			92–101	—	96–92	—	—	—

Source: BAL, Afrobasket
(H) Hosts
Notes:

1. Head-to-head: Cape Town Tigers 73–70 FAP on 13 April 2022.
2. Head-to-head: Cobra Sport 108–82 Espoir Fukash on 13 April 2022.

Playoffs

Main article: 2022 BAL Playoffs

The playoffs began on 21 May and ended on 28 May with the Finals. All games were played in a single-elimination format, and the entire tournament was played at the Kigali Arena in Kigali.

Bracket

	Quarterfinals				Semifinals				Finals
	21 May
	N2 Petro de Luanda	102
					25 May
	S3 AS Salé	89
					Petro de Luanda	88
	21 May
					FAP	74
	S1 REG	63
									28 May
	N4 FAP	66
									Petro de Luanda	72
	22 May
									US Monastir	83
	N1 Zamalek	66
					25 May
	S4 SLAC	49
					Zamalek	81
	22 May
					US Monastir	88			Third place game
	S2 US Monastir	106
									27 May
	N3 Cape Town Tigers	67
									FAP	74
									Zamalek	97

Awards

This season, the Coach of the Year award and All-Defensive First Team were introduced and announced on 27 May.^[50][51] The MVP and Defensive Player of the Year were announced on 28 May 2022.^[5] The BAL Ubuntu Award, for the player that made the greatest contribution to his community, was awarded on 16 March 2023 after a fan vote.^[52]

• Most Valuable Player: Michael Dixon, US Monastir
• Defensive Player of the Year: Ater Majok, US Monastir
• Coach of the Year: José Neto, Petro de Luanda
• Sportsmanship Award: Anas Mahmoud, Zamalek
• Ubuntu Award: Jean Jacques Nshobozwabyosenumukiza, REG
• All-BAL First Team:
  • Terrell Stoglin, AS Salé
  • Édgar Sosa, Zamalek
  • Carlos Morais, Petro de Luanda
  • Radhouane Slimane, US Monastir
  • Ater Majok, US Monastir
• All-Defensive Team:
  • Wilson Nshobozwabyosenumukiza, REG
  • Childe Dundão, Petro de Luanda
  • Aboubakar Gakou, Petro de Luanda
  • Brice Eyaga Bidias, FAP
  • Ater Majok, US Monastir

Statistics

The following were the statistical leaders in 2022 BAL season, including all playoff games.^[53]

Individual statistic leaders Category Player Team(s) Statistic Points per game Terrell Stoglin AS Salé 30.8 Rebounds per game Mayan Kiir Cobra Sport 11.4 Assists per game Hameed Ali DUC 8.4 Steals per game Childe Dundão Petro de Luanda 3.0 Blocks per game Chris Obekpa SLAC 4.6 Turnovers per game Dane Miller Jr. 4.4 Minutes per game 37.8 FG% Mohamed Keita SLAC 75.0% Soufiane Kourdou AS Salé 3P% Michael Dixon US Monastir 47.4% FT% Mikh McKinney Zamalek 90.7%

Individual game highs Category Player Team Statistic Points Terrell Stoglin AS Salé 41 Rebounds Mayan Kiir Cobra Sport 22 Assists Hameed Ali DUC 15 Steals Childe Dundão Petro de Luanda 7 Blocks Anas Mahmoud Zamalek 6 Three pointers Wilson Nshobozwabyosenumukiza REG 8

Team statistic leaders

Category	Team	Statistic
Points per game	AS Salé	90.5
Rebounds per game	Espoir Fukash	47.8
Assists per game	Petro de Luanda	21.5
Steals per game		10.6
Blocks per game	SLAC	4.8
Turnovers per game	Espoir Fukash	20.6
Fouls per game	REG	22.3
FG%	US Monastir	48.1%
FT%		75.3%
3FG%	AS Salé	38.9%

Notes

1. The BK Arena was named the Kigali Arena as the name was changed during the season. On May 24, 2022, the arena's name was changed to the BK Arena after a six-year sponsorship deal worth 7 billion RF with the Bank of Kigali.^[4]