Did the best team win the FIBA Africa Champions Cup 2016?

SHEFFIELD (Julio Chitunda's African Message) - In the aftermath of the FIBA Africa Champions Cup 2016 held in Cairo, the main message was "In Egypt, Egyptians rules" no matter how.

El Ahly beat Recreativo do Libolo 68-66 to celebrate their first-ever FIBA ACC trophy, but did the best team win in Cairo?

If statistics of key aspects of the game - field-goal, assists, rebounding, points scored per game, efficiency, etc - are anything to go by, then a team not named El Ahly were the best one.

However, El Ahly - the only Egyptian basketball club in the competition - with more or less difficulty, won all their seven games, and that proved crucial.

As Egypt's flag bearers, they made sure to keep the Egyptian tradition of winning the FIBA ACC as hosts.

Over the course of the past three decades, two of Egypt largest cities Cairo and Alexandria hosted the FIBA Africa’s elite club competition six times, and local clubs - Al-Ittihad Alexandria, Zamalek, Al Gezira (twice) and El Ahly - won five times.

Surprisingly, the Egyptians found in Cameroon's BEAC Basket - before the Final - their stiffest opponent who almost ended El Ahly’s title aspirations in the Quarter-Finals.

Let's look at the numbers.

Most points scored per Game

Runners-up Recreativo do Libolo - who returned home with a 5-2 record - averaged a tournament-high 83 points per game.

And the team's head coach made sure to share his thoughts. 

Bronze medalists Association Sportive de Sale (Morocco), Club Africain (Tunisia), GS Petroliers (Algeria) and Kano Pillars (Nigeria) all scored more points per game than new Africa champions El Ahly, who finished with 74.7 points per contest.

Field Goal Shooting

That category belongs to Morocco's AS Sale who averaged a tournament-best 48.9 percent, while El Ahly had a 41 percent of field goal success, behind GS Petroliers, Club Africain and Libolo.

Rebounding

No team dominated the paint better than GS Petroliers, who averaged 44.9 boards per game ahead of El Ahly's 44.

Assists

Yet again, GS Petroliers, who were awarded a wild card invitation to participate in the Cairo showpiece, had an impressive ball movement resulting in a tournament-high 20.3 assists - ahead of AS Sale, Libolo and El Ahly.

Efficiency

Libolo, the most efficient team in the tournament, finished in the 2nd-Place with Efficiency Rate of 95.3, ahead of AS Sale, GS Petroliers and El Ahly, respectively.

With all that being said, and as I mentioned in my latest column, which focused on the first games of the this year's FIBA ACC, El Ahly played beautiful, consistent and convincing basketball to become the first Egyptian team to win the trophy in two decades.

You see? Numbers can sometimes be deceiving, and it reinforces the theory that in basketball, there is nothing like win games in the defense. 

And El Ahly played terrific defense all along, averaging a tournament-high 3.6 blocks per game.

With the FIBA ACC trophy switching to the North Africa - for the first time since Etoile Sportif de Sahel won the Cup in Morocco in 2011 - it remains to be seen how Primeiro D'Agosto - the most successful basketball club in Africa with eight continental trophies and the only one to win the trophy in Cairo in 2004 - will react, especially as the Angola champions recorded their worst-ever campaign finishing eight with a 1-6 record.

Well done, El Ahly.

Julio Chitunda

FIBA

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