Historic! Al Ahli Tripoli Becomes First Road to BAL Team to Win BAL Championship Title

Historic! Al Ahli Tripoli Becomes First Road to BAL Team to Win BAL Championship Title

For the first time in the competition's history, a team that qualified through the Road to BAL series has gone on to win the championship. Al Ahli Tripoli of Libya also went unbeaten in competitive games all through the campaign, as the only loss was a non-competitive seeding game. The final, played inside a packed Sunbet Arena in Pretoria, South Africa, saw the Libyan champions beat last year's winners, Petro de Luanda, 88-67.

It was a repeat of last year's final in terms of the countries involved as Angolan side Petro had beaten a Libyan side - Al Ahly Benghazi, in Kigali to be crowned 2024 champions, but this year, in what was a first final outside of Rwanda since the start of the BAL, the Libyan side - Al Ahli Tripoli showed class all through and went past the defending champions.

The Angolans had started the game well when they took an early lead of about 4 points and were looking comfortable. Still, Tripoli bounced back through Assem Marei, Jaylen Adams and their standout player in the semis, Fabian White Junior, to finish the quarter leading by 8 points.

Petro improved on their shooting in the second quarter, with Patrick Gardner leading the charge with some good displays and shooting, but was no way near the brilliance of Jean Jacques Boissy, who stepped up in the quarter and ensured that the Libyans maintained a 5 points lead at halftime. 

The Pretoria fans were cheering all of Petro's points. Every move was made by their homeboy, Samkelo Cele, who eventually finished the game with two points, a steal and an assist. Still, it was left stunned when the Libyan side dominated play on the resumption of the second half, with Marei and White Jr. still doing some good damage on the court and captain Mohamed Sadi also coming to the party with back-to-back three-pointers as the third quarter ended 66-54 in favour of the Libyans who were already smelling victory as they head into the final quarter.

Any hopes of a fightback were extinguished halfway into the final quarter as a dominant display had seen Tripoli leading by over 20 points, leaving the defending champions looking helpless. Eventually, it ended in victory for Fouad Chacra's men, who became the first Libyan side to win the BAL. At the same time, Petro, despite trying to stay competitive, suffered their second final loss in the competition.

Again, for the first time, a conference winner won the BAL, and the BAL Coach of the Year also led a team to the Championship title for the first time in the competition's history.

Assem Marei finished with 22 points, 19 rebounds,  assists and two blocks in what was his best performance this season, having joined the team late for the conference in Kigali before missing the seeding game due to home handling some personal family matters - the only game in which they lost.

Fabian White Jr. added 18 points and nine rebounds, and Jaylen Adams orchestrated the new champions' offense with 11 points and seven assists. Aboubacar Gakou, coming off winning the MVP from the Angolan league, led Petro de Luanda in scoring with 12 points off the bench. In comparison, Patrick Gardner and Childe Dundao finished with 11 points each.

The season finished with Tripoli finishing with a phenomenal season record of nine wins and one loss, and Fouad Abou Chacra was justifiably named the BAL Coach of the Year. Senegalese star Jean Jacques Boissy was named the league's Hakeem Olajuwon MVP, becoming the first Senegalese to achieve the feat, and in addition to his MVP award, he also won the season's leading scorer award, averaging 18.9 points per game.

Petro's Solo Diabaté was hoping to become the first player to win a third BAL title but had to settle for the Manute Bol Sportsmanship Award. Armée Patriotique Rwandaise (APR) forward Aliou Diarra won the Dikembe Mutombo Defensive Player of the Year award.

Elsewhere, according to the league, the 2025 All-BAL Defensive First Team consists of Jean Jacques Boissy, Obadiah Noel, Caleb Agada, Taefale Lenard Jr., and Aliou Diarra, while the 2025 All-BAL Defensive Second Team includes Childe Dundao, Mohamed Sadi, Ivan Almeida, Majok Deng, and Yossoupha Ndoye.

Jean Jacques Boissy was also named in the All 5 BAL team alongside Jaylen Adams, Majok Deng, Aliou Diarra and Patrick Gardner.

Reacting after the game, Al Ahli Tripoli shooting guard Nasseim Badrush said that the key to their BAL success was the team's togetherness.

He added: "We stuck together no matter what the circumstances we faced. From traveling to Turkey for our training camp after the Nile Conference to travelling to Tunisia to apply for our Visas for South Africa we fought together because we had a goal."

Rigoberto Mendoza, who finished with 10 points in the game, said that the opponents capitalised on their mistakes, "They capitalised from almost every mistake we made in the entire game."

The Dominican Republic player added: "We struggled to move the ball around, and we could have controlled our emotions a little better than we did. All these things combined cost us the championship game. Better team or not, it was just a basketball game. In a situation like that, the team that better controls its game plan comes up as the better team; that's what happened."

In the losers final played in front of almost 6,000 fans a day earlier, Rwanda's APR Basketball Club made history, setting a new record for the most points scored by a team in a single game after claiming a 123-90 victory over Egypt's Al Ittihad to finish on the podium at the 2025 Basketball Africa League (BAL). The team's 123-point haul eclipsed the previous record of 115 points, held by Al Ahli Tripoli in their game against Nairobi City Thunder, which took place in the Nile Conference.