MBB attribute slow start to pressure of hosting Basketball Africa playoffs

The Basketball Africa League playoffs to be hosted in South Africa in June have put Made by Ball (MBB), the country's representatives in this week's Nile Conference qualifier in Kigali, Rwanda, under pressure, player Pieter Prinsloo admitted.

MBB have suffered two opening losses in the competition and Prinsloo agreed with head coach Sam Vincent that the team were still finding each other after little preparation together.

The Gauteng outfit squandered a first-half lead of 47-45 and ended up losing 103-81 to Armée Patriotique Rwandaise at the BK Arena on Sunday evening.

With APR and Al Ahli Tripoli winning their first two games, MBB will have to beat Nairobi City Thunder on Tuesday and win another game or two in their last three encounters. That will increase their chances of a wild-card spot.

Two of the best third-placed teams will make their way to Pretoria for the playoffs in June. The last spot is occupied by Morocco’s FUS Rabat, who won two games in the Kalahari Conference with a points difference of -19.

“There could be a lot of pressure the guys might be feeling,” Prinsloo, who scored 13 points in the APR game, said.

“We play City Thunder on Tuesday. We have got better from game one and now we have to improve and get our first victory and we can progress from there.

“We are not trying to look too far now, we need to get better day-by-day and face the mistakes we made.

“We understand the playoffs are in South Africa and it is a big thing for us to qualify.

“Our first two games, we understand the mistakes we made. In game two, there are a lot of things we did better and we see that when we play our basketball.

“APR, we were able to beat them in the first half when we played the right way, but you have to play 40 minutes of basketball to be complete.”

Vincent again bemoaned his team’s inability to close out games but agreed APR’s experience played a key role in the second half.

“Our guys played better. This is a new team, we haven’t played a lot together.

“Every time we get onto the court we want to see improvement. In the first half we played well because we focused on moving the ball.

“We swung it from side to side. We were patient with our shots. In the second half, we were not as patient.”

Daily Dispatch