The third edition of the Basketball Africa League did not start well for Sahara Conference hosts AS Douanes, as they lost 76-70 to the Ivory Coast's ABC Fighters in Dakar, Senegal on Saturday.
ABC's Amadou Harouna was the game's top scorer with 25 points, while Douanes' American power duo of Chris Crawford and BAL all-time leading scorer Terrell Stoglin scored 17 and 21 respectively.
Stoglin, who played for AS Sale in last year's tournament, led the game in free throws made, as ABC coach Liz Mills made certain to contain him during free play. Mills was the AS Sale coach last season.
Mills, a veteran of African basketball despite hailing from Australia, said guarding the America pair was a large part of her game plan, and that Douanes' reliance on them made it easy enough for her defenders.
READ: ESPN's guide to all the teams at the 2023 BAL
Mills said at the post-game conference: " Obviously, having coached one of them (Stoglin) helped a lot.
"These guys both need the ball, so it's actually quite easy to defend when you know someone is just going to take the ball and hog it for 24 seconds.
"You know exactly what they're going to do with it and you know they're not going to play defence, so as a coach, it might be a master plan, but hey -- credit to us, to the team, for executing it.
"Those guys are elite scorers. They know how to score a basketball. To keep them to [21 and 17] is a credit to our defence. We knew if we played good defence, offence was going to be easier."
Both sides are new to the BAL, and Mike Fofana, who scored 21 points for ABC, gave credit to Mills for making her side play as a unit so soon after meeting them, and for sticking to the gameplan.
Fofana said: "We've been practicing really, really hard, so we just came here and do what we've been practicing to do. Practices have been super hard. She (Liz Mills) works us really hard.
"I think she's the best coach in the BAL if you ask me. She can be proud of herself -- she made it really easy for us.
"I feel like we knew who the key players were and if we keyed in on them, the rest of them weren't going to beat us. She made it a very great gameplan -- trying to take the ball out the best players' hands."
Next at in Dakar on March 12 are REG vs Kwara Falcons, and Stade Malien against defending champions US Monastir.
The BAL airs on ESPN's channels in Africa. See the scores and schedule here.