Africa’s most successful club Primeiro de Agosto defeated the defending champions AS Sale 83-71 to emerge champions of the FIBA Africa Basketball League at the Kilamba Arena in Luanda, Angola on Sunday.
2014 MVP Eduardo Mingas scored a double-double to lead Agosto to their first title in six years in front of their home crowd.
40 year old Mingas left no one in doubt as he scored 20 points and 11 rebound double-double with two steals and made two blocks. He also shot 3/6 from the three point range.
Manny Quezada added 17 points and six rebounds with seven assists to go with it.
Hermenegildo dos Santos had 10 points and eight assists while Islando Manuel shot 12 points and seven rebounds.
Sale made a 10-0 run early in the third quarter to take control of the game after trailing by as many as 11 to lead by 3 points 45-42 with 4:31 minutes remaining.
The lead was however short-lived as Agosto regrouped on the defence and head to the last quarter with a 2 point gap 55-53.
Agosto outscored As Sale 28-18 in the last quarter to clinch their first title since 2013 under same coach Paulo Macedo.
Three players finished on double digits for Sale, Wayne Arnold led the way with 21 points and shot 5 of his 10 three pointers in the game. Abdelhakim Zouita had 15 points while Abderrahim Najah was brilliant at both ends of the court with 12 points and 13 rebounds.
Mingas was crowned most valuable player of the final four of the FIBA Africa Basketball League. He also claimed the top rebounder award with 23 in the Final Four.
While Smouha’s guard James Justice Jr. was named top scorer of the Africa Basketball League.
Primeiro de Agosto of Angola finished the competition without losing a game in a total of 7 games played.
Earlier, Smouha won the third place game with a 69-58 win over fellow debutants JS Kairouan of Tunisia.
