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Semi-Finals: Nigeria U21 48 vs. South Africa 103 (61691)

Record: 12-1

Standing: Advancing to the Finals against Senegal

Nigeria stood in the way of the Baby Boks' return to the African Finals game and they experienced at the hands of a hungry South African squad.

- Yera Mji. He came. He saw. He conquered with a team-leading 28-point performance off the bench.
- No double-double this week but 17 big boy boards from Thikhathali Zibi to hold Nigeria off the glass.
- It may not've been pretty for him but shout-out to starting center Nbomani Mbandi who stood toe-to-toe with Nigeria's goliath big man, Daniel Adams, holding him to only 13 points on the game.
- "Defense wins championships" is the mantra of this team as they held Nigeria to 20% shooting for the game (20-91).

Player(s) of the Game: Yera Mji (48754284) trained by A-Dub

This is what we played all season for, another chance at Gold. The time has come to see if we can defend our title (and avenge our only loss) against a formidable Senegal team.

Impressive defense. Senegal won pretty easily too. GL in the finals!

GL in the finals ! Impressive work, bravo

Defense wins championships. Back to back Africa U21 titles. Very nice! :)

Finals: Senegal 51 vs. South Africa 67 (61752)

Record: 13-1

Standing: U21 Africa Champions!

Back-to-back Africa U21 titles was the goal... mission accomplished!

- Defense. Defense. Defense. That was the name of the game in this one. The team had an incredible 16 blocks for the game, with 3 players gaining 3+ blocks and held Senegal as a whole to 23% (20-84) shooting for the game. It's what got the team here and they were all-in on that side of the court.
- It wasn't a loud performance but it was effective. Nbomani Mbandi had to hold his own down low against Senegal's quartet of bruising bigs and put up an effective +18 line of 7 rebounds, 5 assists, a steal, 3 blocks and being perfect from the field with 3 points after going 1 for 1.
- The offense was a bit sluggish in this one but Yera Mji led the team in scoring with 13 points and Shafilshuna Machemko chipped in 12 points as they were the only Baby Boks to score in double-digits.
- The team knew that the rebounding battle was going to be tough after scouting out some of the rebounding on the bigs of Senegal, and identifying at least a couple of prodigious+ rebounders, so they employed a 2-3 zone in this one and were able to valiantly keep the rebounding margin close (57 to 52).

Player(s) of the Game: Nbomani Mbandi (49001186) trained by A Warrior

Thanks Ebene. Defense does win championships! Congratulations to all of our trainers and staff who contributed to gameplanning! We'll do a season recap soon but for now, we simply celebrate another Gold!

Very nice achievement! You are the right man in the right place.

Congrats. Good job!

Now that the confetti has been swept and the champagne has dried. Let's take a look back at the season.

Accolades

- First and foremost, this was South Africa's 4th U21 Continental Championship and the first-ever back-to-back gold trophies!



- This also means we have our first ever 2-time South African U21 champions in Shafilshuna Machemko, Thikhathali Zibi, Yera Mji and Kamangeni Tloome!

- Shafilshuna Machemko ends his tenure on the U21 team as arguably the greatest Baby Bok the team has ever seen. He ranks 1st all-time in games (56) and points (894) while also holding the 4th and 6th records for best scoring seasons, as he once again led the team this season in points (308).

- His companion every step of the way, Thikhathali Zibi, may have had to live in Machemko's shadow but he was the Pippen to Machemko's Jordan. His tenure ends with him 3rd all-time in games (49) and tied for 6th all-time in points (560). This season he was 2nd in points for the team (233) and 1st in rebounds (157).

- Rounding out the leading scorers was Yera Mji who came in 3rd in points for this season (162).

- Big men Kamangeni Tloome (144) and Nbomani Mbandi (122) were 2nd on 3rd for the season in rebounds.

- Point guards Tau Ncube (45) and Makhaya Mukumana (34) were expected to lead the team in assists, and they did, while center Nbomani Mbandi made a surprise appearance on the assists leaderboard, coming in 2nd (44).

- This season we had 6 players receive Player of the Game honors. Thikhathali Zibi receives the award of Season 54 MVP, after being named Player of the Game 6 times, for the Baby Boks as he held together a paper thin interior unit with both his scoring bunch and presence on the boards. The other players who received the Player of the Game recognition were Shafilshuna Machemko (3), Yera Mji (2), Tau Ncube (2), Vincent McDonna (1) and Nbomani Mbandi (1)

- The team's 13-1 record for the season is tied for the best season in South African U21 history, which is also shared by the Season 38 and Season 52 teams, both of which were championship teams.

- As if we didn't mention defense enough around this squad, the combined points allowed from the Semi-Final and Final match-ups was only 99! This is just a small representation of the defensive dogs this team was night in and night out.


Acknowledgments

- With the end of the season, we have to say farewell to a number of departing players (and legends!) - Shafilshuna Machemko, Thikhathali Zibi, Yera Mji, Vincent McDonna, Tau Ncube, Makhaya Mukumana, Dean Armitage, Nbomani Mbandi, Mao Khumelo and Umi Mokitimi!

- Special thanks to all our trainers of players on the team's championship roster - A-Dub, bench9, boksburg, Cabrusan, Ezio, FeelThePressure, Hundid, maniac77, mathew13693, Oldskool and Sandy! We can't have a championship team without a number of dedicated trainers so thank you all for dedicating the months it took for this to happen.

- I'd also like to acknowledge the managers who offered gameplanning input through the Discord (which anyone can still join! (https://discord.gg/VcBkc9D592)) - A-Dub, DRoss, Ezio, FeelThePressure, mathew13693, nemanja, Rapper and rhyminsimon! Small or big, your contributions have been appreciated.

Another historic season in the record books. Let's keep this trend going!