Diarra dominates as APR hand Nairobi City thunderous welcome to BAL

Armée Patriotique Rwandaise (APR) is only playing its second season in the Basketball Africa League, but it made sure freshers Nairobi City Thunder got a proper feel of how tough it gets in the continent’s premier club competition.

A second-half offensive explosion saw APR blow out Thunder, 92-63, as the Season 5 Nile Conference got underway at the BK Arena in Kigali on Saturday.

However, the Thunder started the game like they belonged. A fast-paced opening quarter saw the Kenyan side lead by a point (23-22).

The hosts, backed by a sold-out arena, switched up on the defensive end, taking away all the easy transition stuff. The aggressive defense took the steam and a bit of rhythm from Thunder’s fast offense that got a bit sticky and were limited to just 8 points. At the other end, APR were not fluid but produced 17 points that got them a lead to build on the rest of the way.

“We are an aggressive defensive team, and we don’t want to take our aggressiveness away on the defensive end and our intensity. [Even when guys pick fouls], we will continue to play as a group because we trust each other on defense. We have a deep group, so if somebody is in foul trouble like we did in the first half, somebody else will come up and play because we have complete confidence in our first guy and our last guy,” APR’s head coach Edward Maye Jr said of his team’s defense.

Aliou Diara’s alley-oop dunk to open the third quarter sparked a 10-2 run for the home side, taking their lead to 16 points and Nairobi City had all the work to do. The Thunder slowly chipped away at the deficit through Albert Odera, William Davis II and Eugene Adera off the bench, lowering it to just 5 points.

Nairobi City’s wheels completely fell off when their outside shots were drawing nothing but steel in the ultimate quarter as APR scored 10 unanswered points to extend the lead to 17 points.

Diara did it all for APR, stuffing the stat sheet with 23 points, 12 rebounds, 6 blocks and 4 assists. Former NBA player Chasson Randle added 20 points with Dane Miller (11 points & 8 rebounds) also scoring in double figures. Ntore Habiamana and Obadiaah Noel dished out 9 and 7 assists, respectively.

Meanwhile, for the Thunder, only skipper Tyler Ongwae (14 points) and Davis II (11 points) reached double digits.

The Nile Conference continues on Sunday, when Nairobi City Thunder takes on Al Ahli Tripoli at 3:30 p.m. and MBB faces APR at 6:30 p.m. EAT.

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