RADES (Tunisia) - Union Monastir on Saturday defended their Tunisian League title thanks to an 82-77 win against Etoile Sportive Rades in Game 2 of the Finals.

It was a do-or-die game for hosts Etoile Sportive Rades, who lost 89-69 in Wednesday's Game 1 in Monastir.

The Monastir-based team not only closed the Finals series with a 2-0, but they also won the Tunisian League title for the second time in a row, having upset Etoile Sportive Rades at last year's Finals.

Beating Tunisia's most successful basketball club, who have won a record thirteen League titles in the last 20 years, set Monastir as the basketball team of the moment in the North African country.

This is Monastir's fifth League title, having been crowned Tunisian champions in 1998, 2000, 2005 and 2019.

With a team that includes some of most influential Tunisian internationals like Omar Abada, Radhouane Slimane and Mohamed Hadidade, Monastir automatically qualified to the 2021 Basketball Africa League (BAL), whose inaugural season has been postponed following the COVID-19 outbreak.

Just like Monastir,  the national champions of Egypt, Nigeria, Angola, Senegal and Morocco secure direct qualification to the 12-team BAL's Final Round while over 30 clubs from across need to play qualifying tournaments. 

In this year's BAL's regular-season, the Tunisian champions have been drawn against Ferroviario de Maputo (Mozambique), Patriots BC (Rwanda), Rivers Hoopers (Nigeria), Zamakek (Egypt) and FAP of Cameroon. 

FIBA