History made as debutants RSSB Tigers of Rwanda won their first BAL title in front of a stunned crowd in Kigali with some players and officials bagging multiple honours in what was a thrilling and fitting ending to the sixth season of the Basketball Africa League.
Last Updated on
June 10, 2026
By the time the final buzzer sounded, the RSSB Tigers bench had already spilled onto the court with grown men seen exhibiting different emotions. A few fans had climbed over the baseline barrier just to touch Mangok Mathiang’s jersey as the scoreboard read 90-88 in favour of the Tigers. For the first time in league history, a Rwandan team owns the Basketball Africa League trophy. It didn’t come easy in any way, especially if you were up against Petro de Luanda, the 2024 champions, a team that knows how to make your heart race and then break it. The Angolans had led early, controlled the tie but somewhere in that first half, the Tigers decided they weren’t leaving the BK Arena as guests.
Petro’s Aboubacar Gakou poured in 28 points on the night and looked unstoppable but failed to finish the game as a fourth-quarter foul sent him to the bench, and with him went Petro’s last real chance at a second BAL crown.
Elsewhere on the final day, Libyan champions Al Ahly Ly outscored their Egyptian namesakes Al Ahly SC 106–98 in the 2026 BAL Third-Place Game in Kigali, Rwanda as they returned to their usual high-scoring ways after being limited to less than a hundred points in the semis. For the Egyptians, this was the second consecutive game in which Al Ahly SC conceded 106 points, following their 106-97 defeat to eventual champions RSSB Tigers in the semi-final.
Before the final even tipped off, the league made it official as Henry Mwinuka was named the 2026 BAL Coach of the Year.
The 50-year-old Tanzanian has been doing his job quietly across all the games played this season, was not flamboyant, doesn’t chase cameras but was focused on what he was building and what he built in Kigali is a team that went 6-2, reached the final, and made a whole country believe a Rwandan club belongs on the continent’s biggest stage.
Mwinuka becomes the fifth coach to win the award since its inception and his name now sits alongside José Neto (Petro de Luanda, 2022), Mamadou Pabi Gueye (AS Douanes, 2023), Ogoh Odaudu (Rivers Hoopers, 2024), and Abou Chacra (Al Ahly Tripoli, 2025). Not bad company to keep but more importantly, he’s the first to do it in Rwanda.
One of the stats on the night looked debatable and unreal. How does one explain going 8-for-40 from the floor in a championship game and still registered a game-high 33 points? That was what Randall offered for the Tigers on the night as he played all 40 minutes of the game. He knew how big the occasion was and failed to rest or asked to. He just kept shooting, kept missing, kept shooting again as his belief was very strong.
The 30-year-old guard left the BAL as its scoring leader (36 points a game) and as the 2026 Most Valuable Player (MVP). He was also named in the All-BAL First Team too as expected, alongside Childe Dundao (Petro de Luanda), Donovan Williams (Al Ahly Ly), Majok Deng (Al Ahly Ly) and Mangok Mathiang (RSSB Tigers).
The All-BAL Second Team featured Omar Abada (Club Africain), Zack Lofton (Al Ahly SC), Kevin Murphy (Al Ahly SC), Aboubacar Gakou (Petro de Luanda) and Jo Lual Acuil (Al Ahly Ly) but on Sunday, only one man stayed on the floor the whole way.
Minutes before the final, Mangok Mathiang stood near midcourt, trying not to smile as they handed him the Dikembe Mutombo Defensive Player of the Year award.
It was his first BAL season and he’s 2.11 meters of quiet havoc but his numbers in this year's BAL spanned over eight games as he registered 17 points, 15 rebounds, two assists, a steal, a block but the real story in the final was how he changed shots without leaving his feet and how Petro’s guards kept looking for a lane and finding his chest instead.
Previous winners include Anas Mahmoud (Zamalek, 2021), Ater Majok (US Monastir, 2022), Aliou Diarra (Stade Malien, 2023; APR, 2025) and Jo Lual Acuil (Al Ahly, 2024). Now Mathiang’s name is carved in that wood and he deservedly earned the spot.
For the third time since 2022, Petro de Luanda’s Childe Dundao has been named to the All-BAL Defensive First Team. The veteran who has been dubbed as a quiet nightmare on the ball seems not to abate in any way as his hands are always active and you can hardly ever catch him flat-footed. This year, he’s joined by Mohamed Sadi (Al Ahly Libya), Aminu Mohamed (Club Africain), Mouhamadou Diagne (FUS Rabat) and Mangok Mathiang (RSSB Tigers).
The All-BAL Defensive Second Team featured David Michineau (Dar City), Axel Toupane (ASC Ville de Dakar), Majok Deng (Al Ahly Ly), Osayi Osifo (Al Ahly SC) and Jo Lual Acuil (Al Ahly Ly).
The Manute Bol Sportsmanship award doesn’t get the headlines but Mohamed Sadi wouldn’t want them anyway as the 31-year-old Libyan, a BAL champion with Al Ahly Tripoli in 2025, helped his new team, Al Ahly Libya, to a third-place finish this season with eight points, eight rebounds, four assists and two steals in the game. But the league’s criteria for this award is different - “ethical behaviour, fair play, and integrity throughout the entire season.”
That’s Sadi's character template as he's been doing this since the 2021 season with Senegal’s AS Douanes. Same calm, same respect, same shirt swap with a rookie especially the ones who need a big encouragement after a loss.
In a season where Rwanda finally claimed its place on the continent’s basketball map, the RSSB Tigers wrote their own history, showing grit over glory, ensuring a compact defense over dazzle, and a whole nation rising from their seats in Kigali. Also for the fans who filled all the arenas, for the players who never sat down, and for a Rwandan team that refused to be a footnote in someone else's story—this season belonged to the Tigers and season 7 can't come soon enough.
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