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

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

It might be questionable to find a well-populated stadium for a last-minute decided game, but not when a team such as the mighty Sagesse plays in Michel El Murr stadium! 
After the competitive performance against rivals Al-Riyadi, the green fans were expecting to find their team slightly different than previous encounters with Champville. 

With the regular starters Paul Khoury, Fady Khatib, Kenny Satterfield, Jerod Ward and Elie Mechantaf, the first whistle set light on a man to man defence adopted by the opponents. 
Despite the heavy cover on ex-Sagessian Sabah Khoury, they still managed to get away with a 4-0 score which was alarming as a start. Nonetheless, it was obvious that Ward was trying to increase his involvement under the basket, seconded by Paul, doing a good job with multiple dunks and rebounds, penetrating and receiving passes from his team-mates. But the first quarter was surprisingly dense with fouls, pushing Paul –with 3 fouls already- to be replaced with Bassem Balaa, just like Sarkis was forced to replace Chappel, with less than four minutes to the end of the quarter which ended to Sagesse’s advantage 27-17. 

The second quarter saw Joe Ghattas replacing Mechantaf, as the greens needed to stress more on defense to avoid futile score fluctuation. They were able to move offensively, despite the heavy man to man application: Replacing Chappel, Roland Amouri’s target was defending Kahtib. However, the tiger took care of both Amouri and cousin Hussein El Khatib! Proving the best on court, he was penetrating and shooting, accumulating a total of 32 points.
Champville started using full court passes, while the score difference was up to ten points, applying later a tough man to man defense on Ward, which made him shoot mostly from the outside. The gap started to narrow due to foolish mistakes, as Champville managed to come back to 38-34 and end at half time trailing at just 48-42. 

The game’s starters were aligned at the third quarter, applying a man to man defense on Champville, who were using speed on offence but lacked the final touch. An urgent time-out was asked by coach Dragan to deal with the long-winded play, as the greens were losing track of time and falling prey several times to clock violation. Champville sank three 3 pointers in a row -signed Brian and Sabah- proving to be at ease on the arc and entering the last quarter with a score of 64-56. 

Through the last quarter, Sagesse’s performance got better under the basket, especially with the entrance of Robert Bou Dagher, who proved to be very efficient in the paint, benefiting from offensive rebounds and concluding the final touch. This, on the other hand, was absent on Champville’s side, despite dangerous open shots. Chappel, for instance, was numerous times free on the arc and easily able to try his luck on three points. 
Close to the ending buzzer, Sabah made good use of a technical foul given to coach Dragan, to score three shots and reduce the score to 79-70. Sagesse knew how to take back the game’s control, applying a tight double team on both Sabah and Brian, especially under the basket. With the fans teasing coach Ghassan Sarkis who had previously replied to their chants, Kenny finished the game by putting on a good show, benefiting from a foul followed by a nice two points shot. 

Ending the game with a score of 87-76, Sagesse did confirm captain Elie Mechantaf’s comments made at the end of Riyadi game, stating that Sagesse is definitely a strong competitor for the final six, with the players’ efforts and Dragan Raca’s coaching.