Athletic guard who came to the United States prior to his junior year of high
school ... averaged over 22 minutes per game in gaining valuable experience last season
... is expected to compete for playing time in the backcourt in 2002-03 ... has
played just three years of organized basketball.
As a Freshman (2001-02)
Saw action in 23 games with 15 starts ... averaged 2.5 points and 1.9 rebounds
per game ... started the first 14 games of the season before an ankle injury limited
him to 13 minutes off the bench vs. La Salle on Jan.16 ... the injury forced him to
miss four of six games (Saint Joseph’s, at Richmond, UMass and at URI) over the
next three weeks ... was averaging 27 minutes per game and shooting 42.2 percent
from the field prior to the injury ... saw his minutes per game drop to 14.4 over the
second half of the season ... scored 10 points on 5-of-8 shooting vs. Bowling Green
in early December ... handed out a season high five assists in the win over Liberty on
Dec. 29 ... struggled in Atlantic 10 play, shooting just 14.7 percent from the field (5-
of-34) and 18.8 percent (3-of-16) from the three-point arc ... started the seasonopener
along with Simplice Njoya marking the first time a Duquesne team began a
season with two freshmen in the starting lineup since Fitzgerald Bobo and Emmett
Sellers started against Indiana (Pa.) in head coach Jim Satalin's first game at
Duquesne on Nov. 28, 1982.
High School
St. Vincent-St. Mary High School in Akron, Ohio (head coach Keith Dambrot) ...
averaged 12.3 points, 4.0 rebounds and 1.7 steals per game as a starter for the 2000-
01 Ohio Division III State Champions ... it was the second consecutive state title for
the Fighting Irish and marked the 16th time in the 79-year history of the Ohio boy’s
state tournament that a team won back-to-back titles ... totaled 12 points and
pulled down eight rebounds before a crowd of 17,612 at the Schottenstein Center in
Columbus — the largest to ever watch a state tournament game in the state of Ohio
— in the‘01 title game win over Casstown Miami East ... was second to St. Vincent-
St. Mary Parade All-American Lebron James in scoring, assists and steals as a senior...
shot 43 percent from the field and 31.5 percent (39-of-124) from the threepoint
arc ... St. Vincent-St. Mary went 53-1 in Samabaly’s two seasons with a final
USA Today national ranking of No. 23 in 1999-00 (27-0) and No. 5 in 2000-01 (26-
1) ... the Irish’s lone loss came to USA Today No. 1 ranked Oak Hill Academy, 79-78,
on January 13, 2001.
Personal
Was born in Kinshasa, Zaire where he lived until the age of eight ... considers Bamako,
Mali — the hometown of his late father Mankna — as home ... lost both parents
in the space of six months when his mother, Charlotte, died in an automobile
accident and his father passed away six months later from a heart attack ... spent a
year in Mali following his father’s death before moving in with his oldest sister, Assetou,
in Paris where he lived prior to coming to the U.S. in 1999 ... lived with Bob
and Becky Kelly in Akron while attending high school ... speaks five languages: Bambara
(a dialect of Mali), Soneke (the language of his father’s village), Linjala (the language
of his mother’s village in Zaire), French and English ... did not speak English
when he first arrived in the U.S. ... learned much of the language by renting movies
he had seen in France and watching them in English with the closed-captioning on
... has two other older sisters, Binta and Fatou ... did not play basketball until age 13
... played soccer, volleyball and ran track for fun as a child ... communications major
... full name is Aly Samabaly ... date of birth: 10/10/81.
Career Highs for Aly Samabaly
| Points | 10, Bowling Green
| Rebounds | 4, three times
| Assists | 5, Liberty
| Blocks | 0
| Steals | 2, Vermont
| Minutes | 32, three times
| | | | | |
