02 February 2012

BEIRUT: Sagesse moved into joint 3rd place in the Lebanese Basketball League Wednesday as they beat Hoops Club in Ghazir 84-74.The Ghazir side didn’t make life easy for themselves however.

Sagesse controlled the opening 25 minutes of the game, pulling out to a 22-point lead before allowing Hoops Club back into the game, setting up a nervous final quarter.

Sagesse moved Mohammad Fahes – an underrated forward whose ability to stretch the defense creates options for Sagesse’s lightening-fast guards Miguel Martinez and Joey Accaoui – stepped into the power forward slot vacated by Daniel Faris who is out for the rest of the season after another ACL tear.

Sabah Khoury kick-started the game for the hosts with a 3-pointer before Nate Johnson added to their advantage with 4 quick points as Sagesse set about putting Sunday’s disappointment behind them.

Sagesse held a decent lead at 13-9 before scoring 5 unanswered points to go 18-9 ahead.

The home side then put their foot on the gas as they launched out to 30-16 in the first quarter lead.

Sagesse maintained their momentum, going on an 11-5 run to open up a commanding 41-21 early in the second quarter.

The two sides then exchanged baskets until the half-time break, going into the dressing rooms at 50-31 to Sagesse.

The early signs in the third quarter were that Sagesse would comfortably ride out the game, reaching 60-38 and coasting. Hoops Club, however, would not go down without a fight as they broke out onto a staggering 18-6 run to pull within 10 points at the end of the third quarter.

With just 4 minutes left of the game, Hoops Club were still only behind by 10 points before Sagesse finally put the game to bed, slowly extending the lead to 14 points before securing a comfortable win.

Brandon Crump and Hussein al-Khatib led their teams in scoring with 30 and 25 points respectively.

Riyadi’s clash with Anibal Zahle – a game that was initially scheduled to be played in Round 6 – was postponed until Thursday with water seeping onto the court in Zahle.

Elsewhere, the draw for the WABA League quarterfinal stage was made Wednesday with Lebanon’s three representatives all receiving relatively favorable draws.

Riyadi, who topped Group A in the preliminary round, will play in Group A alongside Zobahan and Petrochimi of Iran as well as Riyadi Aramex of Jordan. In Group B, Champville and Mouttahed Tripoli will face a weak Duhok team from Iraq and Asian powerhouse Mahram of Iran.

Copyright The Daily Star 2012.