LIBREVILLE (Gabon) - Moanda Basketball is back in the Elite 16 of the Road to BAL, and they will be looking to improve on last year's one-game win.
History
The two-time Gabonese Cup champions, who were founded in 2022, are still a young club. They made a decent debut at last year's Road to BAL tournament, reaching the Elite 16 stage.
Coach
Johd Masnoudji is a former Gabon national team coach who led Moanda to domestic cup success.
Masnoudji was in charge of the Gabonese team in the first round of the 2025 AfroBasket qualifiers, but stepped down after they lost all three games.
Key players
Desire Mboukou
Congolese guard Desire Mboukou has stepped up his scoring production this season. Mboukou, who scored 10.8 points per game in last season's Road to BAL, bumped up the stats sheet with 14.5 points per game in this year's first stage.
Cedric Kenfack
The Cameroonian seems to do well with clubs from Gabon. In his first Road to BAL appearance with Manga BB in 2019, he averaged 19.3 points, 4.5 rebounds, and 2.3 assists. However, his production declined in the subsequent Road to BAL tournaments.
But his return to Gabon and in the colours of Moanda, the 34-year-old has put up good figures (14 points, nine rebounds and three assists).
Dolivitch Moupomo
The Gabon international has also seen a spike in his production. Moupomo, who averaged 7.7 points, seven rebounds and 1.7 assists last year, raised the bar for himself in this year's Road to BAL. Twenty-six-year-old Moupomo scored 11.5 points, 9.5 rebounds and 2.5 assists in the preliminary phase of the competition.
How they qualified
Despite a 1-3 record last year, Moanda still made it to the Elite 16, but last month (October), they were a more ruthless outfit, going 2-0 in Group C.
Elite 16 West Division, Group B
In Cape Verde, Moanda will face Libya's Al Ahli Benghazi, the Central African Republic's New Tech Université Club, and Ghana's Spintex Knights.
FIBA