Flosh Ngwenya’s mood drifted between anger, disappointment and self-deprecation as he absorbed a third consecutive loss for his Joburg Giants team, that leaves them with no more wiggle room in the Basketball Africa League.
Ngwenya didn’t want to criticise the officials — even though he could have for some iffy calls — or throw his captain Pieter Prinsloo under the bus for another off-colour performance.
A 102-89 defeat to RSSB Tigers was the Giants’ third loss of the Kalahari Conference at the Sunbet Arena and means they have to win their two remaining fixtures against Al-Ahly of Libya and the robust Petro Luanda if they hope to qualify for the play-offs at the end of May in Kigali.
“We fought hard, gave ourselves a chance but sometimes things don’t go your way,” Ngwenya mused.
On Wednesday night they sorted out their sluggish starts, which hampered them against Dar City and Nairobi earlier in the week. They stuck with the Tigers through three quarters, leading at various stages.
However, as the third quarter unfolded, they also found themselves having to fight back and the toll it took meant they ran out of legs in the fourth quarter. The Tigers turned a three-point lead at the start of the final period into a 13-point victory margin.
“We played guys for heavy minutes and expected them to perform, it’s part of being a pro basketball player, but they do get tired,” said Ngwenya.
The effort that was put in to try to stop Craig Randall, the Tigers’ 29-year-old American point guard, was simply too taxing. He dropped 39 points, which included five threes, in the most dominant individual performance of the week.
“The plan for him was clear, to get the ball out of his hands and make everyone else beat us. We face-guarded him, it worked sometimes, but we switched off,” said Ngwenya.
When Randall wasn’t torching them, Mangok Mathiang scored through the middle, putting up 32 points and, more painfully, grabbing 17 rebounds.
The fact that Prinsloo has been out of touch this week proved another hindrance. He is averaging four points per game, and on Wednesday had another poor outing, making just one shot from nine attempts. “Stats don’t lie,” Ngwenya mused.
“We lean on him in terms of scoring, he’s a great player, but he needs to make adjustments. Part of it is in his head. We have put him in situations to get him more touches. We still believe in him. We will try to get him more touches to get him going. If he scores 10 points, it will be a different ball game.”
We fought hard, gave ourselves a chance but sometimes things don’t go your way
— Flosh Ngwenya
There were encouraging signs again from American Jakobi Heady who led the scoring for the Giants with 30, but more impressive was 27-year-old Nathi Sibanyoni, who scored 24 points and grabbed 18 rebounds. “We are learning each and every game. We have two games to go, so we still stand a chance; we will continue to fight,” he said.
Their opponents for those matches, however, were the two favourites before the tournament started and both are chasing play-off spots. Petro Luanda, who won the title in 2024, outclassed Nairobi City Thunder in Wednesday’s first game 97-70, to move into second place on the conference standings.
Al-Ahly, the defending champions, have looked sluggish throughout the week, losing their opening two matches against the Tigers and Luanda. They bounced back against Dar City, but will be confident of beating the Giants on Sunday to keep themselves in playoff contention.
The top four teams qualify for the playoffs in Kigali.
TimesLIVE
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