Teafale Lenard Jr. is so assured that RSSB Tigers will advance to the semifinals of the 2026 BAL season that he advised he might not be wanted for Sunday's second of the quarterfinal playoff sequence in opposition to FUS Rabat.
An ankle damage restricted the two.05m swingman to only 8 minutes and 51 seconds within the first half however as his RSSB Tigers went forward to beat FUS Rabat 95–72 on Friday earlier than a packed BK Area. President Paul Kagame was additionally current on the recreation.
This 23-point victory marked the return of Lenard Jr, who performed his first BAL recreation since serving to the RSSB Tigers beat Petro de Luanda in Pretoria, South Africa, on March 29.
He shot 3-for-5 from the ground, ending with 9 factors.
Nonetheless, Lenard Jr. stated that the explanation for the RSBB Tigers’ win was his teammate, Craig Randall.
For a lot of the first half, FUS Rabat seemed to be inside attain of Tigers, however a sloppy ultimate 5 minutes, throughout which they allowed a 14-4 scoring run, proved an excessive amount of to beat.
FUS Rabat arrived in Kigali trying to bounce again from their double additional time loss to Al Ahly in Rabat on the final day of the Sahara Convention three weeks in the past.
Nonetheless, enjoying with out Will Perry and Abdoulaye Harouna, the group’s main scorer, restricted their possibilities.
In the meantime, to the delight of their house followers, who stuffed virtually each seat of the BK Area, the RSSB Tigers led from begin to end.
Their followers celebrated each dunk and three-pointer, in addition to some spectacular performs carried out by their heroes on the court docket.
However the night time belonged to Craig Randall as soon as once more, this time earlier than his spouse and father.
The left-handed guard shot 11-for-28 from the ground, together with 6-for-19 from deep, to complete with 38 factors.
This was the fourth time in 5 video games that Leonard had scored over 37 factors.
Not even Kuany Atem Kuany’s 12 factors and 9 rebounds might save FUS Rabat. To make issues worse, their bench was outscored 41–21.
For FUS Rabat (3-3) to advance to the semifinals, they need to win by 23 factors or extra in opposition to RSBB (5-1) on Sunday.
