CAIRO – Despite Zaire Wade’s impressive 17 points as his father, Dwyane Wade, cheered him on in Cairo, the Cape Town Tigers lost 82-76 to Ferroviario da Beira in the Basketball Africa League on Wednesday night, putting them at risk of not advancing. . ,
The Tigers have now lost three of four games in the Nile Conference in Cairo, and will miss the playoffs and finals in Kigali, Rwanda if they do not finish in the top four out of six teams. month.
From tip-off, it was clear that both teams understood the magnitude of the assignment facing the elder Wade, who was in full ‘dad coaching from the sideline’ mode, and wife Gabrielle Union, and it was a tightly contested first half.
Evans Ganapamo and Mike Gubiniz kept the Tigers within touching distance and they eventually went into half-time level at 39–39.
zaire wade Sparked in the third quarter, controlling the pace of the play and showing moments of sublime skill that were few and far between in their early opening games. The Tigers led 65–56 at the end of the quarter.
🏀 a cracking game of @cfvbeira come from behind to beat @CapetownTigers In an exciting encounter 🔥#TheBAL pic.twitter.com/kdUWnGFqt3
– Basketball Africa League (@theBAL) May 3, 2023
However, Bira fought back and retook the lead with about 1:24 left to go in the fourth quarter before a key bucket by Ismail Nurmamade extended it to three points. Bira led 78–75 at this point. They managed to close out the win and win 82–76, with Nagel Young scoring 26, Noormamade 20 and Bourama Sidibe 19.
“It’s always great to play in front of your family. It shows real family support. There’s a lot of talk outside, but you can see we’re a village – we have each other. It just goes to show Goes to see how far he’ll go to see me chase my dreams,” the 21-year-old Wade said after the game.
However, for the Tigers going into their final group game against the City Oilers, the equation is simple: win or go home empty-handed. Meanwhile, Bira has some breathing space after claiming his second win.
Commenting on the win, Beira’s Will Perry said: “We’re pretty similar teams in terms of talent across the board. Today, we finally kind of gritted it. In the first half, we turned the ball around a lot In the second half, we were doing the same thing till the last five or six minutes when we came back. I think the difference was only in the last five or six minutes.
1:32
Petro de Luanda dominates the SLAC Warriors
With a strong 95–78 victory over the Petro de Luanda SLAC Warriors, the Bal Nile advanced to the conference finals.
In the earlier game, SLAC tied tit for tat with Petro de Luanda, who remained unbeaten in their quest for a first BAL title after finishing runner-up last year, taking the game 95–78.
The Angolan champions took an early 22-20 lead, but Damian Hollis and Carlos Morais hit form in the second quarter to take a 56-41 advantage at the half-time break.
Despite Dan Miller’s best efforts for SLAC, Petro continued to pull clear in the third quarter and extended their advantage to 79–58.
Ultimately, the difference between the teams was that Petro once again spread the scoring brilliantly, with 12 different players each getting a piece of the pie, while Miller and Emeka Nwabuzor did the heavy lifting for the Guinean side.
“Once I was in [Petro], I realized the extra pass factor. He averaged me four of our five assists as a big man… That’s the extra pass factor. [Petro’s mindset says] ‘He’s got a better shot – I’ll give him the ball,'” Aitor Majok said at the press conference, explaining how he spreads the scoring so well.
