Cape Town Tigers need to find their accuracy to be successful in BAL

Sadly for the Cape Town Tigers, their energy at the start of their first match on home soil didn’t match what was happening in the stands around Pretoria's SunBet Arena on Saturday. 

A brass band blasted music from the upper decks, Pearl Thusi danced courtside, Boity Thulo clapped because someone told her to and chants of “Let’s go Tigers” shook the arena, but the Tigers unfortunately did no go.

It took them three minutes to score their first points and that first shot only dropped after coach ‘Flosh’ Ngwenya took a timeout to settle their nerves. The Tigers lost 86-73 to Dynamo Club of Burundi on the opening weekend of the Kalahari Conference in season four of the Basketball Africa League (BAL).

It was an enormous occasion for the players, one that in the build-up they said they were excited about, but in that first quarter especially they appeared overwhelmed. Usually slow starters anyway, on Saturday against Dynamo — who are playing in their first BAL, and took a remarkable journey to get to this stage — the Tigers made just five of their 15 shots in the first quarter. 

Dynamo dared the Tigers to shoot three-pointers, and they were right to do so with the home team making only nine out of their 30 attempts from beyond the arc.

“What? Nine of 30?” Samkelo Cele the Tigers’ replied disbelievingly when told of his team’s troubles with their shooting from distance. “We missed open shots, but that happens, it’s part of the game but we won’t be going nine for 30 in our next game, that’s for sure.” 

He refused to blame nerves for that sluggish start, but the tension would have been understandable given this was arguably the most high-profile game many of the players would have participated in. The celebrities courtside — which included twice former NBA All Star Joachim Noah, who is one of the tournament's ambassadors — illustrated that. 

They managed to drag themselves back from a 20-point deficit, getting to within five late in the third quarter, which got the crowd on its feet in anticipation of an unlikely victory. But Dynamo were cool in the face of that pressure, with Bryton Hobbs, their US guard, producing a magnificent display in which he scored 20 points and dished eight assists. 

“They are the hometown team but we didn’t want to come out here and lay an egg. We had the right energy and got the victory,” Hobbs said. 

Hobbs may have joined the team six weeks ago, but he’s had a taste of the hardship they have endured to get to this point.

“We work outdoors, there is no gym in Burundi,” said Dynamo coach, Julien Chaigno, who was also only brought in by the International Basketball Federation after the team had qualified for the BAL last November. 

Some of their matches in the qualifying tournament were played outdoors and a few of those were halted because of rain. “Playing outdoors for a month, we were able to create that chemistry and being a tight-knit team, we were ready [for today],” Hobbs said. 

Rather than fold under the expectations like the Tigers did, the Burundi team thrived, embracing the occasion, revelling in their status as the underdog, before pulling off the upset, putting the celebs back in their expensive courtside seats and silencing what had for most of the evening been a boisterous home crowd. 

“The opportunity presented itself to be inside a gym, playing against a great team, and we took it,” Hobbs said.