Rivers Hoopers face Stade Malien as 2025 BAL tips-off April 5
Nigeria’s Rivers Hoopers will open the 2025 Basketball Africa League (BAL) campaign with a clash against 2023 third-place finisher Stade Malien as the league tips off on Saturday, April 5 at the Prince Moulay Abdellah Sports Complex in Rabat, Morocco. The “Kingsmen” as Rivers Hoopers are called secured a third-place finish in the previous edition, […]
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Nigeria’s Rivers Hoopers will open the 2025 Basketball Africa League (BAL) campaign with a clash against 2023 third-place finisher Stade Malien as the league tips off on Saturday, April 5 at the Prince Moulay Abdellah Sports Complex in Rabat, Morocco.
The “Kingsmen” as Rivers Hoopers are called secured a third-place finish in the previous edition, and will be aiming for a top spot in the Kalahari Conference to secure one of the three available playoff berths.
The Basketball Africa League (BAL) also announced that 156 players from a record 28 countries across five continents will compete in the league’s milestone fifth season.
In the second game, home team Fath Union Sport (FUS; Morocco) will take on first-time BAL participant Al Ittihad (Egypt) at 7:00 p.m.
During the 2025 BAL season, each four-team 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, every team will play on every gameday.
The Kalahari Conference group phase will take place from April 5 – Sunday, April 13 in Rabat. The Sahara Conference group phase will take place from Saturday, April 26 – Sunday, May 4 at the Dakar Arena in Senegal.
The Nile Conference group phase will take place from Saturday, May 17 – Sunday, May 25 at BK Arena in Kigali, Rwanda.
Eight teams from across the three conferences will travel to Pretoria, South Africa for four seeding games followed by an eight-game, single-elimination playoffs and finals from Friday, June 6 – Saturday, June 14.