Slimane’s 24 points ignite US Monastir’s winning streak

The Tunisian champions finished second in the inaugural season of the Basketball Africa League (BAL) in 2021 in Kigali, and this season they have self-proclaimed to be title contenders

Radhouane Slimane on Friday reminded everyone why the Sahara Conference is the start of an unfinished business for him and US Monastir.

The Tunisian champions finished second in the inaugural season of the Basketball Africa League (BAL) in 2021 in Kigali, and this season they have self-proclaimed to be title contenders. 

But things weren’t as rosy as they expected against AS Salé on Friday.

And although Monastir extended their winning streak to 3-0 after beating AS Salé 96-90, things could have gone terribly wrong in the last two minutes of the game.

Inspired by Terrel Stoglin and Adboulaye Harouna, the Moroccan champions trailed by as many as 20 points at some point in the game, but managed an incredible comeback.

Harouna and Stoglin combined for three three-pointers within the first three minutes into the last quarter to cut the deficit to 71-68.

And AS Salé’s best was yet to come when Harouna finished an easy layup off a turnover that gave the Moroccan outfit their first lead of the game (78-77) with 04:40 minutes left.

Monastir Head Coach Modrag Perisic sensed his team’s running out of control, called a timeout, and US Monastir regained control of the game.

“We showed that we are a team of personality, but if we want to win the championship we can’t give up these many points,” said Slimane who finished with a team-high 24 points.

Miichael Dixon added 22 points, Soleymane Diabate contributed 11 points, and Ater Majok came up with 14 points and 12 rebounds – his third double-double in the Sahara Conference.

“Happy for the win, but tonight we weren’t so good. Of course, I am not satisfied with the way (we) played defense tonight,” Perisic said in the postgame press conference.

“They have very good individual players and we allowed them to play an equal game with us. They didn’t use many rules, but they had some good individual plays.

“Each time we had a 10+ lead, my team relaxed, they thought it was an easy one. But we played relatively better defense when we were up by one or two.”

With his 41 points, Stoglin beat his own BAL record (40), and Harouna scored 15 of his 24 points from behind the arc.

Stoglin and Harouna who spent 40 minutes each on the floor each, were the only AS Salé players to score in double figures.

AS Salé gave up, far too many points, Head Coach Liz Mills later admitted.

“It’s an issue of chemistry. This team has been together for two or three weeks now. We don’t expect miracles. We need to share the ball more, and need more players to contribute,” she said.

US Monastir’s aggressiveness was fundamental to help the Tunisians champions close the opening quarter with a 32-21 lead.

Slimane opened the score with a three-pointer, and a scenario that would repeat itself time and time again as Monastir finished with 12 three-pointers made.

By the end of the first 10 minutes, Monastir had made five of their six three-point attempts, with Slimane hitting a perfect 2-for-2.

While US Monastir moved closer to the playoffs in May, AS Salé dropped to 1-2.

BASKETBALL AFRICA LEAGUE’S SAHARA CONFERENCE GAMES – March 11 Game Recap: 

• AS Salé vs. US Monastir 90-96
• DUC vs. REG 92-86

TODAY’S GAMES:

• 2:00 p.m. GMT – SLAC vs. CFV-Beira
• 5:30 p.m. GMT – US Monastir vs DUC