Thanks to Patrick Gardner's lethal plays, Petro de Luanda reached the semifinals of the Basketball Africa League BAL for the fifth consecutive season with their 95-84 win against US Monastir at SunBet Arena in Pretoria on Monday night.
No other team in the league's history has reached such a milestone.
The Angolan champions needed to bounce back from their loss in the seeding game to APR two days earlier. Beating Monastir, the Tunisian side they had lost to three times in their previous four encounters, was essential.
Monastir and Petro traded blows early in the game. However, when the reigning champions used a 12-0 scoring run to close the opening quarter with a 12-point lead 28-16, there was little the 2022 BAL champions could do to retake the lead.
Gardner shot 5-for-9 from the floor, including 3-for-5 from deep, to finish with 14 points. His teammate Kendrick Ray led all players in scoring with 20 points.