Lebanese Basketball Championship - Men Division One - Regular Season 2005/06

Starters:      Bassem Balaa - Fady Khatib - Kenny Satterfield - Paul Khoury - Jerod Ward
Substitutes:  Elie Mechantaf - Robert Boudagher

Sagesse strengthened their position in the standings and further distanced themselves from their hosts Blue Stars by deservedly bagging a 9-point win. Dragan Raca had a score to settle with Blue Stars’ coach Valerio Bianchini and was keen to wipe out the memories of his last defeat against the Italian mastermind; For that reason, he once again relied on his trademark defence and on an inspired duo of Khatib and Ward led by maestro Satterfield to inflict Blue Stars their 4th defeat in the final-six stage.

It was an evenly balanced first quarter that got underway with Sagesse starters –Satterfield, Khatib, Ward, Balaa and Khoury – applying a man-to-man defence. Nonetheless, early proceedings proved dull and both teams failed to find their rhythm offensively until late in the quarter but Sagesse had Khatib to thank for scoring 6 points in the last 90 seconds enabling his team to lead 17-16 at the end of the first period.

Sagesse inaugurated the second quarter with a 9-0 scoring run with most of the points scored by the explosive Jerod ward after being fed by Kenny Satterfield. Blue Stars showed little resistance and hadn’t they had Jean Abdelnour to convert a few fast-breaks, they would have dropped the towel early on. Consequently, Bianchini switched to a 2-3 zone defence to hamper the Greens’ offensive machine and the plan initially succeeded as the gap shrank to 4 points. The hosts also enjoyed a spell during which they dominated the offensive rebounds but their expectations were brought to a halt with Ward scoring five consecutive points before half-time to send his team to the interval leading 44-35.

Sagesse got off the third quarter on the wrong foot as they failed to keep their momentum, allowig the Blue Stars to rapidly get back in contention at 50-46. Raca opted to break up Bianchini’s zone defence by introducing Mechantaf and changing his team’s defence to box-and-one on Blue Stars’ foreigner Todd Day. The Cypriote’s strategy worked wonderfully since the Captain hit one from behind-the-arc, and at the same time, Sagesse’s defensive strategy was generating numerous steals that launched Khatib in deadly fast-breaks. Consequently, the quarter ended with a 60-49 scoreline.

In the beginning of the fourth quarter, the offence of the green machine was flowing. The ball rotated efficiently and Sagesse controlled the offensive rebounds on the weak side while the gap fluctuated between 8 and 11 points. Henceforth, Bianchini decided to return to a man-to-man-scheme as he conceded his zone’s failure. At 75-62 and with only one minute remaining, Fadi Khatib fell victim of a foul that was followed by a technical foul when he contested a seemingly wrongful refereeing decision. Nonetheless, the Blues’ star of the night Abdelnour failed to convert 3 of his 4 shots from the free-throw stripe and the remainder of the time was an opportunity for Khatib to add another three points to his tally. Eventually, the game ended 75-66.

-Game statistics chart courtesy of Al-Balad newspaper - Sports Section ©-Al-Balad-2005 - All Rights reserved: