Basketball Africa League 2026

RSSB’s BAL title win masks Rwanda’s basketball reality

THE BAL celebration confetti that poured as the Rwandan club RSSB Tigers hoisted the trophy on Sunday has cleared. Fans will be back to their daily routines after the crazy Sunday night celebration. And the ending of this BAL 2026 season is the resumption of the next.

However, as the resetting happens, there is another reality of Rwanda’s basketball that should not be left unchecked.

No doubt, RSSB’s accomplishment has greatly enhanced the East African nation’s image. Their BAL victory and Rwanda’s growing domestic league, a popular destination for top African and international talent, can only benefit that country. It’s a return on investment made by Rwanda’s government to popularise basketball. Additionally, with the state’s backing, partnerships with entities like the NBA further improved the sport’s visibility.

But at what cost? The optics of winning the BAL were great for Rwanda and RSSB, but how does it benefit the apex basketball entity in Rwanda, the national team?

RSSB player Ntore Habimana Rwanda 2025 AfroBasket — **Can BAL champion Ntore Habimana help revive Rwanda’s World Cup hopes?**

Something apparent and glaring throughout RSSB’s BAL campaign, until they lifted the baobab-shaped BAL trophy, was the heavy reliance on their import players. Tournament MVP Craig Randall II, Defensive Player of the Year Mangok Mathiang, Teafal Leanard, Mali’s Oumar Ballo and naturalised Antino Jackson carried RSSB to victory – but in stark contrast, Rwanda’s national team players like Axel Mpoyo, Ntore Habimana and Dieudonné Ndizeye only played contributing roles.

Whereas RSSB relied on their recruits, their opponents in the final, the BAL standard bearers, Petro de Luanda, who were playing in their fourth consecutive final on Sunday, and have competed in every BAL since the tournament’s inception, leaned on their local players like 2025 AfroBasket MVP Childe Dundão, Aboubakar Gakou, Yanick Moreira, Cleusio Castro, Milton Valente, Gerson Goncalves and Gerson Domingos.

You can spot the difference that Petro has a longer list of national team players. These are the players who, during Petro’s run to a fourth final, made significant contributions and continue Angola’s tradition of excellence on the African club scene. Names like Gakou, Valente and Goncalves (Gerson) were also alongside Dundão when Angola annexed a 12th AfroBasket trophy on home soil. Those names have been called up by Pep Canals, the Palancas Negras coach, as he plots Angola’s 10th appearance at the FIBA World Cup in Qatar next year.

Rwanda, too, are competing in the ongoing FIBA World Cup 2027 Africa qualifiers and will head to Angola (2-5 July) for the third window. But RSSB’s strong showing at the BAL masks the fact that the national team find themselves stone last with a 0-3 record in their qualifying Group D, which has Guinea, Tunisia and Nigeria. Not the kind of result you would expect for a country whose club just won the BAL, but again, who carried the night for RSSB in the BAL final?

RSSB player Dieudonne Ndizeye and Rwanda — **Dieudonne Ndizeye has been an ever-present for the national team.**

It was not Mpoyo nor Habimana, and while they gave RSSB quality minutes and made decent contributions, they hardly set the scene alight. Dundao and Gakou, on the other hand, exhibited why Angolan basketball is something to brag about as the duo were contenders for the MVP title alongside Randle II and Mathiang. Point guard Dundao was named to the All-BAL First Team, while forward Gakou made the All-BAL Second Team, showing the gulf between Angola and Rwanda.

The Petro ethos of banking on homegrown players is tried and tested. It has consistently brought them and other Angolan clubs success. In the BAL era, many clubs have adopted RSSB’s approach, prioritising immediate success over investing in the development of homegrown talent that could also strengthen their national teams.

Clubs like RSSB need to invest more in their domestic talent pipelines to develop players capable of competing at both the BAL and FIBA competitions.

For now, Rwanda and RSSB can bask in their BAL glory – but in the coming weeks, the novelty of winning the BAL will wear off, and barring a miracle in the World Cup qualifiers, the reality could set in that they still have some way to go before they are truly a force in African basketball.

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RSSB overcome adversity to be crowned BAL champs

From replacement team to champions

The RSSB Tigers were not initially invited to Season 6. They got a phone call less than a month before the tip-off after APR was withdrawn due to political sanctions. This left them with no time to develop a game plan, study their opponents, or face the weight of expectation.

However, the absence of pressure became their greatest asset. Throughout the Kalahari Conference in Pretoria, they played fiercely and without apology. They secured wins and adapted to the BAL’s physical demands, making adjustments every time they stepped onto the court. What started as a replacement story gradually evolved into a legitimate title contention by the end of the Kalahari Conference.

Henry Mwinuka RSSB coach — **Coach Henry Mwinuka successfully led RSSB Tigers to a maiden BAL title. Pictures: BAL and The Big Tip Off**

At the centre of this remarkable journey was Craig Randall II. His Season 6 campaign was historic, as he set a new BAL single-game scoring record, achieved over 300 points in the season, became the hope of an entire nation, and was awarded MVP honours. Randall was the offensive engine, the emotional anchor, and the standard-setter for a team that needed someone to demonstrate what fearlessness looked like.

This is what Randal said at the post-match conference: “This is everything to me. Three months ago, I almost gave up on basketball. I didn’t want to play basketball anymore. I didn’t think it was for me,” said Randall. “When I came here. James and Coach Henry did something for me that nobody has ever done – which was to allow me to be myself on and off the court. And I have a group of guys that I love because they did the same thing.

Randall continued: “I’ll be honest, I am not the easiest guy to deal with. My wife can tell you that, but when it comes to the game of basketball, I give everything I have,” he said.

“The president, when I spoke to him about making history, I told him, ‘I promise you we’re gonna make history,’ and I told you all the other day I was not coming to this press conference without this trophy.”

Mangok Mathiang laid the foundation in the paint, earning Defensive Player of the Year and establishing himself as one of the league’s most reliable big men. Head coach Henry Mwinuka, named Coach of the Year, accomplished something most coaches never get to claim: he took a team assembled under duress and led them to the championship in a single season without making excuses.

“The win is for the coaching staff and the players,” said Mwinuka. “We have been working so hard during camp. I appreciate them for stepping up during the game. I want them to go and enjoy now.

“It was really hard from South Africa to getting here. It was frustating sometimes, but I believe, I believe in the players and this credit goes to them.”

Ultimately, RSSB represented something much bigger than basketball. It reflected the resilience of Rwandan sporting infrastructure, built on adaptability, depth, and an unshakeable “next man up” mentality. When one door closes in Rwanda, another doesn’t just open; it bursts wide open. They didn’t just participate in Season 6; they made their mark.

Craig Randall II RSSB Tigers — **Craig Randall II played lights out from the Kalahari Conference all the way to the final.**

Petro de Luanda: The Standard, Even in Defeat

To understand how significant RSSB’s title is, you have to understand what they beat. Six seasons in, Petro de Luanda are the BAL’s most enduring force. Four finals appearances. Championship pedigree. A structure and continuity that no other club on the continent has matched. They arrived in Kigali not as contenders but as the standard. For a stretch of that final, they looked every bit of it. Petro opened with a 20–0 vintage run: disciplined, physical, collectively executed. The kind of basketball that has made them the measuring stick for an entire league. If the game had ended at halftime, we would have written a very different story.

However, championships aren’t decided in stretches.

As the game wore on, foul trouble crept in. Aboubakar Gakou, who was pivotal to Petro’s rhythm and had a hot hand, was limited by both fouls and a slight injury at the worst possible time. Childe Dundão struggled from beyond the arc, and Gerson Lukeny couldn’t find the consistent rhythm that made him lethal in the semi-finals. The spacing that defined their offence never fully clicked, and in the fourth quarter, when they needed to run clean sets and manufacture stops, the disruptions had simply accumulated too much.

This resulted in a compounding of small fractures in a game that punishes everyone. Petro de Luanda remain the BAL’s most complete franchise. That didn’t change on Sunday night. What changed was that, for the first time in Season 6, they met a team that refused to be defined by the moment they were in.

The final that crystallised a season

The closing stretch said everything. Experience versus belief. Pedigree versus hunger. Two very different philosophies of championship basketball were decided by who made fewer mistakes in the moments that mattered most. RSSB won, and in winning, they handed Rwanda their first BAL title, a milestone for a franchise, yes, but more meaningfully, a return on investment which provided validation of an entire basketball ecosystem that has been built with a lot of intention over the past few years.

Season 6 had records set and broken, breakout stars, familiar faces and moments that will be replayed and debated for years. However, its defining image is a team that arrived as a footnote and left as champions.

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Meet our All BAL team

Craig Randall II – RSSB Tigers

At the centre of the offensive explosion stands Craig Randall II, whose 2026 campaign has been unlike anything the BAL has seen before. Averaging 36.6 points per game, he leads the league in scoring by a remarkable margin, separating himself from the rest of the field.

Randall leads the BAL in seven statistical categories: points, field goals made and attempted, three-pointers made and attempted, and free throws made and attempted, a rare level of dominance across all scoring areas.

He averages 37.8 minutes per game, the third-highest in the league, carrying one of the heaviest offensive loads in professional basketball. The gap between Randall and the second-leading scorer stands at 14.1 points per game, larger than the gap between second place and fifteenth.

His most defining performance came against Dar City during the Kalahari Conference at SunBet Arena in Pretoria, where he set a BAL single-game scoring record with 54 points. He finished 19-for-34 from the field and 12-for-14 from the free-throw line, overcoming constant double-teams and defensive pressure to deliver one of the most dominant performances in league history.

Jo Lual Acuil Al Ahly Ly 2026 — **Jo-Lual Acuil has played his best basketball for Al Ahly Ly. Pictures: BAL**

Jo Lual Acuil – Al Ahly Libya

The 2024 BAL MVP has built his 2026 season on pure interior dominance. Leading the BAL with a 58.9% field-goal percentage, he operates almost entirely around the basket, finishing efficiently with positioning, strength, and touch.

He averages 10.0 rebounds per game, consistently controlling the glass and generating second-chance opportunities. Defensively, he adds 2.0 blocks per game, anchoring the paint and providing one of the most reliable interior presences in the league.

Donovan Williams – Al Ahly Libya

Donovan Williams averaged 21.6 points per game and is ranked third in the league. It was the shooting splits that separated him from every other volume scorer: 56.8% from the field, 50.0% from three-point range, and 81.5% from the free throw line.

No player in BAL history had come this close to the 50-40-90 club, and Williams achieved these numbers while carrying a significant offensive load for a team that reached the final four.

Zachary Lofton – Al Ahly Egypt

Zachary Lofton arrived in the BAL as a proven scorer, but the 2026 season showed there was far more to his game than putting points on the board. Averaging 18.5 points per game, Lofton established himself as one of the league’s most dangerous offensive weapons while proving that high-volume scoring could still come with efficiency and control.

What elevated his game even further was his playmaking. His 5.3 assists per game revealed a player capable of reading defences and punishing teams that focused too heavily on stopping his scoring.

His standout performance of the season came on May 5, when he exploded for 32 points and knocked down 8 three-pointers in Al Ahly Egypt’s 85-65 victory over JCA Kings, a win that secured the team’s playoff spot.

Lofton’s 32 points were the highest individual scoring performance in the Sahara Conference that season, surpassing Jonathan Cisse’s 30-point outing

Zachary Lofton Al Ahly BAL 2026 — **Zachary Lofton brought his A-game for Al Ahly.**

Mangok Mathiang – RSSB Tigers

Mangok Mathiang is the type of two-way player championship teams rely on. Averaging a double-double of 16 points per game and 14.5 rebounds per game, he is impacting games through effort, positioning, and physical presence.

While his defensive influence does not always appear fully in the box score, opponents constantly felt it around the rim. He alters shots, protects the paint, and helps control possessions on defence. Offensively, his 52.8% field goal percentage shows his ability to convert opportunities created through hustle and smart positioning

Sixth Man: Chile Dundão – Petro de Luanda

If the All-Star team needs someone to steady the game when the starters rest, Childe Dundão is the ideal choice. His 6.0 assists per game kept the offence flowing smoothly, consistently finding open shooters and cutters with smart, well-timed passes.

What truly separates Dundão as a sixth man is his efficiency. He shot a BAL-best 88.0% from the free throw line and 44.1% from the field, making the most of every possession without forcing the action. His 2.1 steals per game also brought valuable defensive energy, disrupting opponents and creating transition opportunities before defences could recover.

Whether it was setting up a teammate or stripping a ball handler at half court, Dundão provided exactly what every championship-calibre bench needs: composure, efficiency, and energy in crucial moments.

Meet our All BAL team Read More »