ABIDJAN (Cote d'Ivoire) - Rolly Fula hit some huge shots at Palais des Sports de Treichville on Monday afternoon, but none was bigger than the 3-pointer at the forty-five with just over a minute to play as Stade Malien beat Spintex Knights 94-80.
Fula’s triple came at a stage in the game when the Knights had fought back from a double-digit deficit to bring the score to within 5 points (83-78).
Interestingly, the pass for the shot came from veteran guard Kelvin Amayo, who dished out 13 assists to go with 18 points.
“We got a good win,” Amayo said after the game. “It’s always hard to get it… the first win, and we got it. So, all this is the testimony from the hard work we did in Bamako before coming here, and then we added some good pieces. We’re just happy to get the first win,” he added.
Throughout the first half, Stade Malien played some bully basketball on offense, putting their size advantage to full use through Fula, Abdoul Karim Coulibaly, and Jerry Ngopot with help from Mamadou Doucoure while shutting out the paint with the zone.
At the top, Amayo, skipper Makan Keita and Damaria Franklin made in tough Ibrahima Ndiaye and star guard James Amotoe as well as Malik Temple to have many clean looks. But at the opposite end, Amayo controlled the tempo of the game well, and found his bigs in spots to score.
“I feel like I did really well when it comes to like holding, giving the ball and controlling it at key times. I feel like I’ve been doing this my whole time playing in Africa. So you know what you’re getting from me. And so I think I did a good job and we came and got a chance to get a win,” Amayo said.
While Stade Malien led by as many as 22 points following a 9-0 run in the third quarter, the Knights never fell off and kept fighting through Temple, who netted 13 points in the quarter.
“I think it was just that everybody [on our side] was getting shots up. I feel like we were up a little bit, but it’s still a new group together, and everybody still gotta understand championship pedigree and getting a chance to take the next step,” Amayo said of the switch in momentum.
Spintex run continued into the fourth quarter before running out of steam down the stretch. James Amotoe, who had a near triple-double with 19 points, 15 rebounds and 9 assists, says the Knights lost the fighting spirit at some point.
“I think we lost our fighting spirit at some point, and then I think that’s what we are going to work on. I mean, we are down one, two more games to go.
“Basketball is a game of runs, and their coach did some good adjustments with that. He knew our shots were not falling, so he had to be tactical a bit. So I think kudos to him. And then we are, we are coming back stronger and most importantly for us to get stops right from the start of the game.”
FIBA