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Africa Basketball League
Season	2019
Dates	February 8 – May 26, 2019
Games played	24 (group stage) 12 (knockout phase)
Teams	42 (qualifying tournament) 16 (group stage)
Regular season
Season MVP	Eduardo Mingas (Primeiro de Agosto)
Finals
Champions	Primeiro de Agosto (9th title)
Runners-up	AS Salé
Third place	Smouha SC
Fourth place	JS Kairouan
Statistical leaders
Points Reggie Holmes (Al Ahly) 20.2 Rebounds Todd O'Brien (Al Ahly) 12.0 Assists Ahmed Dhif (Kairouan) 5.7 Efficiency Maodo Nguirane (Kairouan) 21.7
← 2017 2021 (BAL) →

The 2019 FIBA Africa Basketball League was the 33nd edition of FIBA Africa's premier club Basketball tournament and the 1st under the new format and new name. The season saw an expansion from twelve to sixteen teams.

The season began on February 8, 2019, and ended on May 26, 2019, with the conclusion of the Final Four. The Final Four was hosted at the Kilamba Arena in Luanda, Angola.

It was the last season of the league as the competition was replaced by the Basketball Africa League (BAL), a new competition jointly established by the National Basketball Association (NBA) and FIBA.

Competition format

FIBA Africa has increased the number of participating teams from twelve to sixteen. These teams get their ticket for the Africa Basketball League through regional qualifiers (Zone 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 of FIBA Africa).

The qualifiers for the Africa Basketball League Group stage was held from September and until mid-December 2018, while the final phase will take place from January 11 to April 21, 2019, in various African cities.

The 16 teams qualified for the round of 16 will be divided into 4 groups of 4 teams each and the competition will take place in the form of a championship where each team will face respectively the 3 opponents of his group. Then, the first two clubs in each group will qualify for the Elite 8 where the clubs will be divided into four groups of two teams each and then games will be played in a home and away format. At this stage, the competition will be played in a one-way match against the principle of direct elimination. The Four winners will advance to the Final 4, that will be played on April 20 while the final take place the next day.

Qualification tournament

Zone	Qualified teams	Eliminated teams
Zone 1	ES Radès AS Salé JS Kairouan	Wydad AC Al Ahly Tripoli Ittihad Tripoli
Zone 2	SLAC	MBC USFAS Bamako
Zone 3	Rivers Hoopers Civil Defenders Elan Sportif	Custom Braves Harbel Pointer AS Police
Zone 4	BC Terreur ASB Mazembe	CAS 1987 Le Phoenix San Antonio Jet 7 CB
Zone 5	Al Ahly, Smouha, REG	Ethiopia Water Wolekite City KPA Strathmore Patriots JKT Oilers
Zone 6	Ferroviário da Beira, Primeiro de Agosto, Petro Luanda	Ferroviário de Maputo Bravehearts Central Knight Harare City Hornets Foxes
Zone 7	COSPN	Premium Cobras Mahebourg Flippers Beau Vallon Heat

Teams

A total of 16 teams from 10 countries will contest the league.

Venues and locations

Team	Home city	Arena	Capacity
AS Salé	Salé	Salle El Bouâzzaoui	2,000
ES Radès	Tunis	Salle Taoufik-Bouhima	3,500
JS Kairouan	Kairouan	Salle Aziz Miled	2,000
SLAC	Conakry	Palais de Sport du Stade du 28 Septembre	–
Rivers Hoopers	Port Harcourt	Rivers State Basketball Complex	2,000
Civil Defenders	Abuja	Abuja Sports Hall	3,000
Elan Sportif	Porto-Novo	Hall des Arts Loisirs et Sports Boulevard Saint-Michel	–
BC Terreur	Kinshasa	Martyrs Sports Complex	2,000
BC Mazembe	Lubumbashi		–
Al Ahly	Cairo	Al Ahly Sports Hall	3,500
Smouha	Alexandria	Ittihad Sports Arena	2,000
Ferroviário da Beira	Beira	Estádio do Ferroviário Indoor Hall	–
Primeiro de Agosto	Luanda	Pavilhão Victorino Cunha	1,500
Petro de Luanda	Luanda	Pavilhão da Cidadela	6,873
COSPN	Antananarivo	Palais des Sports Mahamasina	7,090
REG	Kigali	Amahoro Indoor Stadium	2,500

1. Despite being from Porto-Novo, Elan Sportif hosted the team games at the Hall des Arts Loisirs et Sports Boulevard Saint-Michel (H.A.L.S.) in Cotonou.

Schedule

Group stage

The draw was held in Abidjan on 12 January 2019.

The two teams with the best records for each group qualified to Elite 8.

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	AS Salé (H)	3	3	0	272	222	+50	6	Advance to Elite 8
2	JS Kairouan	3	2	1	241	212	+29	5
3	Rivers Hoopers	3	1	2	205	254	−49	4
4	SLAC	3	0	3	233	263	−30	3

Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	ES Radès	3	3	0	236	187	+49	6	Advance to Elite 8
2	Civil Defenders	3	2	1	209	213	−4	5
3	Élan Sportif (H)	3	1	2	193	207	−14	4
4	Terreur	3	0	3	185	216	−31	3

Group C

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Primeiro de Agosto	3	3	0	243	196	+47	6	Advance to Elite 8
2	Al Ahly (H)	3	2	1	241	239	+2	5
3	REG	3	1	2	226	225	+1	4
4	Ferroviário da Beira	3	0	3	209	259	−50	3

Group D

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Smouha	3	3	0	276	177	+99	6	Advance to Elite 8
2	Petro de Luanda	3	2	1	235	216	+19	5
3	ASB Mazembe	3	1	2	220	222	−2	4
4	COSPN (H)	3	0	3	196	312	−116	3

Knockout phase

Bracket

	Elite 8						Final four						Final
	AS Salé	69	96	165
	Civil Defenders	69	77	146
							AS Salé			81
							JS Kairouan			73
	ES Radès	67	73	140
	JS Kairouan	68	74	142
													AS Salé			71
													Primeiro de Agosto			83
	Primeiro de Agosto	70	74	144
	Petro	57	57	114
							Primeiro de Agosto			86
							Smouha			76			Third place
	Al Ahly	82	88	170
	Smouha	91	88	179
													JS Kairouan			58
													Smouha			69

Elite 8

The Elite 8 games were played in a home and away basis from March 22, to April 14, 2019.

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Civil Defenders	146–165	AS Salé	69–69	77–96
JS Kairouan	142–140	ES Radès	68–67	74–73
Petro de Luanda	114–144	Primeiro de Agosto	57–70	57–74
Smouha	179–163	Al Ahly	91–82	88–81

Final Four

On 19 April 2019, the Kilamba Arena in Luanda, Angola was announced as host of the Final Four. The draw was held on 27 April 2019 in Abidjan.

Semifinals

24 May 2019	AS Salé	81–73	JS Kairouan	Luanda
	Scoring by quarter: 19–20, 27–15, 19–17, 16–21
	Pts: Wood 27 Rebs: Choua 10 Asts: El Ghazi, El Mahsini 4 each Eff: Kourdou 24	Boxscore	Pts: Gilbert 24 Rebs: Nguirane 14 Asts: Dhif 7 Eff: Slimane 19	Arena: Kilamba Arena

24 May 2019	Primeiro de Agosto	86–76	Smouha	Luanda
	Scoring by quarter: 20–25, 24–12, 30–17, 12–22
	Pts: Harris 24 Rebs: Mingas 12 Asts: Costa, Quezada 7 Eff: Mingas 35	Boxscore	Pts: Justice Jr. 23 Rebs: Sarhan 6 Asts: Justice Jr. 5 Eff: Justice Jr. 20	Arena: Kilamba Arena

Third place game

26 May 2019	JS Kairouan	58–69	Smouha	Luanda
18:30	Scoring by quarter: 14–24, 12–13, 17–17, 15–15
	Pts: Gilbert, Kochat 15 each Rebs: Gilbert 14 Asts: Dhif 4 Eff: Kochat 19	Boxscore	Pts: Justice Jr. 22 Rebs: Okosun 15 Asts: Justice Jr. 3 Eff: Okosun 23	Arena: Kilamba Arena

Final

26 May 2019	AS Salé	71–83	Primeiro de Agosto	Luanda
18:30	Scoring by quarter: 17–26, 17–16, 19–13, 18–28
	Pts: Arnold 21 Rebs: Najah 13 Asts: El Mahsini 5 PIR: Najah 18	Boxscore	Pts: Mingas Rebs: Mingas 11 Asts: Quezada 7 PIR: Quezada 21	Arena: Kilamba Arena Attendance: 5,500

Awards

The individual awards were announced on May 26, after the conclusion of the final.

• Most Valuable Player: Eduardo Mingas (Primeiro de Agosto)
• All-Star Team:
  • Eduardo Mingas (Primeiro de Agosto)
  • Soufiane Kourdou (AS Salé)
  • Manny Quezada (Primerio de Agosto)
  • Abderrahim Najah (AS Salé)
  • James Justice Jr. (Smouha)

Statistics

Statistics as of the ending of the season.

Individual statistical leaders

Individual game highs

References

1. Découvrez l’Afroleague, la nouvelle compétition de clubs de FIBA Afrique
2. Zone 3 champions Rivers Hoopers Basketball Club will know their opponents for the 2019 FIBA AfroLeague later in December
3. "Competition System". FIBA.basketball. Retrieved 10 August 2022.
4. Draw Results FIBA Basketball
5. "FIBA Africa Basketball League has arrived! Everything you need to know about this week's Group C games". fiba.basketball. 7 February 2019. Retrieved 12 February 2019.
6. Elite 8 pairings set following conclusion of Group Phase fiba.basketball. 11 Mar 2019. Retrieved 13 Mar 2019.
7. "Luanda named as hosts of FIBA Africa Basketball League 2019 FINAL FOUR". FIBA.basketball. Retrieved 5 November 2019.
8. "Final Four pairings confirmed". FIBA.basketball. Retrieved 5 November 2019.
9. "Huge crowd witnesses D'Agosto set a record 9th African title". FIBA.basketball. Retrieved 6 June 2021.
10. "Eduardo Mingas claims MVP award of #AfricaLeague 2019 FINAL FOUR". FIBA.basketball. Retrieved 6 June 2021.
11. "Justice Jr. Mingas, Kourodu highlight FIBA ABL 2019 All-Star team". FIBA.basketball. Retrieved 6 June 2021.
12. "Players statistics of the FIBA Africa Basketball League 2019". FIBA.basketball. Retrieved 10 August 2022.

External links

• Official website
• FIBA Africa Official website

• FIBA Africa Clubs Champions Cup
• 2018 in African basketball
• 2019 in African basketball
• 2018–19 in basketball leagues
• Sports competitions in Luanda
• 2019 in Angolan sport