Nigerian champions, Rivers Hoopers of Port Harcourt, will face Tunisia’s Union Sportive Monsatirieme in a placement tie tomorrow ahead of the quarterfinals of the 2025 Basketball Africa League (BAL) billed for Pretoria, South Africa.

According to the playoffs team ranking, the 2024 bronze-medallists, the six-time Nigerian League champions who sealed consecutive playoffs appearances by finishing second in the Kalahari Conference with a 4-2 mark, are ranked fourth overall.

While nine-time Tunisian champions, US Monastir, who topped the Sahara Conference standings, are ranked third overall. Both teams finished with identical records of four wins and two losses from their respective conferences.

This will be the fifth meeting between Rivers Hoopers and US Monastir in BAL history, with the previous four meetings evenly split at two wins apiece.
En route to finishing third at BAL Season 4, Rivers Hoopers and US Monastir met three times; twice in the Sahara Conference, where both teams won one game each, before the KingsMen knocked out the 2022 champions in an electrifying quarterfinal showdown.

Monastir had earlier beaten Rivers Hoopers in their first-ever meeting during the group phase of the inaugural BAL season. The fifth installment of what has grown to be one of the oldest and fiercest BAL rivalries is billed to hold tomorrow.

The top two teams from each of the three conferences (Sahara, Nile, and Kalahari) qualified for the playoffs, along with the top two third-place teams across the three conferences.

In the BAL, seeding games are played before the playoffs to determine the playoff bracket matchups and seeding for the single-elimination playoffs.
The placement ties will feature the following matchups: First to second seed, Al Ahli vs Al Ittihad; third to fourth seed, US Monastir vs Rivers Hoopers; fifth to sixth seed, Petro de Luanda vs APR, and seventh to eight seed, Kriol Star vs FUS Rabat. The outcome of these matches will determine the final seeding for the quarterfinals.

Meanwhile, Rivers Hoopers’ star, Kelvin Amayo, has congratulated US Monastir for entering the BAL Season 5 Playoffs as Sahara Conference winners, saying that the team have grown positively from the side that featured in the championship last year.

Amayo, who led the Kalahari Conference in blocks, believes that the team’s defensive efforts will be crucial in limiting the Sahara Conference winners.

“I think what we are going to do is showcase a high level of intensity in the defensive end,” Amayo said. The six-foot-four guard has a positive record against US Monastir, having helped Rivers Hoopers win 92-88 in the 2024 BAL quarterfinals with 18 points, six rebounds, and 10 assists.

Both teams have grown to become familiar foes at the BAL and are now set for the fifth installment of their growing rivalry, with the previous four meetings evenly split at two wins apiece.

Amayo is positive about the meeting. He said: “Everybody is going to have fun, and I think Saturday is a great game for everybody to come and watch.”

The BAL Season 5 Playoffs will run from today to June 14, starting with today’s seeding games. All games will be played at the SunBet Arena, Pretoria, South Africa.