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 - George Chibani - Robert Boudagher
                  Yervant Avakian - Maurice Boukanaan

After the successive victories accomplished by Sagesse, winning against modest Feitroun was expected. 

As the game started with the usual Kenny Satterfied, Fadi El Khatib, Elie Mechantaf, Jerod Ward and Paul Khoury, both teams were applying man to man defense, with Sagesse’s advantage under the basket allowing the Greens to achieve an early lead. Nonetheless, the pattern of turnovers appeared along useless mistakes that could have been easily avoided. The opponents were often at ease on the perimeter and the mid distance shots, pointing out some defensive flaws that were however fixed in the last minutes of the quarter. Bassem replaced Paul, suffering from a light ankle injury after the last game, while Kenny and Fadi were excelling as a duo, ending the first quarter with a score of 28-18. 

The same lineup entered the second quarter, alongside Ward’s unusual turnovers plus light flaws in the defensive system. Soon enough however he pulled himself together and started putting on the show with a superb dunk. The same first quarter's defensive system was being applied, reinforced by Joe Ghattas’ added-value entrance. 
Still, the lead alarmingly decreased, and taking advantage of open and easy chances was becoming a must. Fortunately, all players were aware of that : Soon they switched to zone defense and high pressure under the basket, until the score gap increased thanks to multiple fast breaks, forcing Feitroun's coach Michel Sfeir to ask for a time out. After a technical foul whistled on the opponents' bench, both teams entered half time with Sagesse leading 57-36. 

The second half began with Kenny, Mechantaf, Khatib, Ward and Chibani -who was playing on position 1- with a clear loss of concentration. Feitroun's zone defense pushed the Greens to play mostly on the outside, with a weak performance under the basket, while on the Feitroun players were more at ease and reducing the gap. It was obvious at that moment that many players could have performed better. Still the show was on sporadically, like Ghattas' shot after one of his steals. Showtime and nice which added flavour to the 3rd quarter which ended 75-50 to Sagesse. 

Same lineup entered the final quarter, with Chibani replacing Ghattas later on, and Balaa replacing Ward. Feitroun's man to man defense resulted in successful outside shots from Sagesse's side, easily leading 86-56 and allowing coach Raca to rotate many players in order to rest his team: Avakian, Boukanaan and Ward stepping in, replacing Chibani, Balaa and Boudagher. The inside game got better, notably a distinguished performance by Yervant who managed to sink two 3 pointers in a row, one of which concluding the game at the buzzer and granting Sagesse its 2nd Final 6 win at 99-70. 

Players, staff and fans are all waiting for Tuesday's peak encounter between Sagesse and their top-rivals Sporting on the latter homecourt, mainly after their promising last encounter and Sagesse recent comeback.