The Basketball Africa League has unveiled the 12 teams and game schedule for the opening leg of the league’s fifth season, which will tip off with the Kalahari Conference group phase from 5-13 April in Rabat, Morocco.
The season, which will feature three regular-season group phases and culminate with the play-offs and finals at the SunBet Arena in Pretoria, South Africa in June, will feature a record six first-time BAL participants, including the first BAL teams from Cape Verde (Kriol Star Basketball) and Kenya (Nairobi City Thunder), as well as defending champions Petro de Luanda (Angola) and 2022 champions US Monastir (Tunisia).
Petro de Luanda and US Monastir are the only teams to have qualified for all five BAL seasons.
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South Africa will be represented by the ‘Made by Basketball’ team and they are in the Nile Conference with Al Ahli Tripoli (Libya), Nairobi City Thunder, and Armée Patriotique Rwandaise Basketball (Rwanda).
Each conference will play a 12-game group phase during which each team will face the other three teams in its conference twice. During group phase play, the home team in each country will play on every gameday.
In the season opener, Stade Malien (Mali) will face Rivers Hoopers (Nigeria). In the second game, home team Fath Union Sport (Morocco) will take on Al Ittihad (Egypt).
Eight teams from across the three conferences will travel to Pretoria for four seeding games, followed by an eight-game, single-elimination play-offs and finals from 6-14 June.
