The Johannesburg Giants secured back-to-back Basketball South Africa National Clubs Championship titles after finishing the national tournament unbeaten at 4-0. Coach Florsheim Ngwenya's side closed out the event at Johannesburg's Mandeville Complex on Sunday, 11 October, crushing 2024 national champions MBB 99-57 in the final round-robin game.
The championship crowns the Giants and secures South Africa's place in the 2027 FIBA Road to BAL qualifiers. Earlier this year, the Giants made their BAL debut, finishing 0-5 in the Sahara Conference, after placing second at the Road to BAL East Division Elite 16 in Nairobi.
Four Giants players scored in double digits against MBB. Dylan Whitbread led with 20 points on 4/6 shooting from beyond the arc, while Joshua Ozabor added 19 points on 4/7 from three. Championship MVP Aviwe Mahlong scored 15 and Yanick Kasilembo added 12.
Whitbread, a former Cape Town Tigers guard, said he had spent time away from basketball for most of last year before rediscovering his touch. He said: "I had not played that much in the previous games. I had three minutes here and five minutes there." He added that the squad "clicked" in the final and he focused on being "more vocal as a leader".
Looking ahead to the Road to BAL, Whitbread said: "I know this is a step in where we want to go. A lot of the players have played the Basketball Africa League level already, myself included. We have our eye firmly on that goal."
