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

Starters:      Lamine Diawara - Elie Mechantaf - Bassem Balaa - Fady Khatib - Kenny Satterfield
Substitutes: Yervant Avakian - Maurice Abou Kanaan - Paul Khoury - Joe Ghattas
                  Elie Estephan - Robert Boudagher

It was in a poorly crowded Ghazir Stadium that Sagesse met Feytroun for the second time this season. Coach Dragan decided to start with the “traditional starters” Elie Mechantaf, Fadi el Khatib, Bassem Balaa, Lamine Dyawara and Kenny Satterfield.

The game followed a rather fast course in the beginning of the first quarter, with a man to man defense, benefiting from the presence of Bassem and Lamine on the inside. Nonetheless, it seemed as if the team couldn’t really benefit from the inside presence, focusing their play on the outside, with the Tiger’s speed both inside and outside the zone, while Sagesse were leading 10-6.
Despite the defensive flaws, the Greens where mostly benefiting from Khatib’s shots especially on the free throws. As the defensive flows went on, Dragan was forced to call for a timeout, changing his plan to man to man defense and throwing Joe Ghattas on the court replacing captain Mechantaf, as well as Robert Boudagher instead of Bassem Balaa.
Still, the lack of preparation was obvious as the players weren’t really digging the coach's system. Consequently, they had recourse to fouls to stop Feytroun’s players from scoring as Feitroun were leading 19-22, forcing coach Raca to ask for 2 time outs in less than four minutes.
Sagesse comeback finally succeeded thanks to Robert’s efforts under the basket and Kenny’s speed. The latter was replaced by Yervant Avakian right before that the game was stopped for approximately ten minutes as one referee collapsed on court.

With Rabah Njeim replacing the injured main referee, the second quarter took off with Paul and Lamine under the basket, Kenny, captain Mechantaf and Khatib on the outside.
While the Greens were focusing on the outside play, the coach replaced Paul with Bassem while Kenny was hardly dealing with a double team defense on him. Along this, the score tied at 29-29, then Feitroun got lucky on the three pointers, especially one that was counted after Lamine’s block shot, raising the gap to 38-37.

Fadi and Kenny’s double team defensive play proved very efficient, reducing the gap and changing it to Sagesse’s benefit 43-37, featuring Lamine’s efforts on blockshots. Sagesse players were now performing better under the basket and reducing their defensive mistakes.
After a new time out, the coach asked for a zone attack and a double team on defense, in order to avoid an eventual come back while the lead was still Sagesse’s.
Bassem was into foul trouble and had to be replaced with Paul with 2:29 minutes left till half time. Meanwhile, captain Mechantaf was shining under the basket, on the 3 pointers and defensively, as well as Lamine who was excelling with the blockshots.
With a ten points of difference (51-41), coach Raca asked the players to perform a full court moving up towards the basket. The second quarter ended with a 2 pointer from Kenny, setting the score at 53-41, clearly reflecting the players' better assimilation of their coach's system.

The second half took off with the same twin tower under the basket (Lamine and Paul), alongside Kenny, the captain and Khatib on the outside, with the same double team defense.
While former Sagesse player Joe Mansour was unlucky with his 3 pointer shot, Feytroun’s foreigner had easy shots under the basket thanks to Sagesse's unfortunate same defensive flaws that forced Dragan to ask for another time out facing Feitroun's alarming come back.
The players were asked to stress defensively, Paul was replaced with Maurice who stepped onto the field after quite a time on the bench.
With more success from captain Mechantaf on the 3 pointers, the score was now 66-55 at 5:20 minutes left to the 3rd quarter.
In spite of some refereeing mistakes that raised Sagesse's fouls count at a “turbo” speed, the system was nonetheless improving.
Playing zone defense, Maurice was doing a fine job covering Feytroun’s foreigner.
The quarter ended with a margin of ten points for Sagesse 77-67.

With Robert replacing Maurice, the players were asked to attack more without loosening on the defense. Still defensive flaws were obvious on the pitch, while the opponents were trying a zone play.
The Greens' defense on the outside was remarkably better than on the inside, with a special mention to the players’ efforts on the rebounds.
At 84-72, Bassem with his 4 fouls replaced Robert, then Raca had him replaced by Elie Estephan at 44 seconds left when he committed his fifth foul.
The duo Khatib-Mechantaf did an outstanding job with Khatib’s speed and Mechantaf’s presence under the basket to score more points and raise the "Green Gladiators" lead gap to 26 points.
With the coach asking again to apply a full defense, the game finally ended at 103-87.

“We played using different rotations and systems, with man to man, zone, etc.” as coach Raca told us after the game. “Our major problem is the lack of preparation, which is the reason why the players aren’t getting the system. Hopefully, this problem will be solved as we have 2 weeks break”.

2 weeks indeed to straighten the team and trace the coming path that the Greens will follow, along the imports issue, all of which is the sole responsibility of coach Raca, and the final decision is his.
Fadi el Khatib ended with a game high of 29 points, added to 9 rebounds and 8 assists, followed by Kenny with 22 points and 9 assist.