WASL Super League - Edition 1/2006

Starters:     Paul Khoury - Elie Mechantaf - Jerod Ward - Fady Khatib - Kenny Satterfield
Substitutes: Bassem Balaa - Joe Ghattas - George Chibani - Robert Boudagher
                  Maurice Boukanaan - Yervant Avakian
 

Participating in WASL superleague for the first time, Sagesse met with Syria’s Al-Jaich, after yesterday’s encounter against Sporting Aramex, granted them their 1st win. Playing under Dragan Raca’s supervision, the Green’s will to win is strong, proving their ability against foreign teams. 

The game took off with the regular starters Kenny Satterfield, Elie Mechantaf, Fadi El Khatib, Jay Ward and Paul Khoury. 
With the first whistle, the game witnessed a fast start by the opponents who managed to take the lead through scoring and offensive rebounds, while the green players wasted many opportunities under the basket and from the outside. This was drawn by the zone defense applied, forcing Sagesse to mostly play from the arc and mid distance. Kenny’s edge on speed managed to beat the system with fast breaks. The coach had recourse to substitution to fix the gaps: hence Joe Ghattas instead of Elie Mechantaf, following a time-out from Yugoslavian-Cypriot Dragan Raca, who changed the system into man to man defense. With this, Sagesse managed to tighten their defense and achieved a 6-0 run (7-10). The coach was still trying to fix the system flaws to avoid further gabs, thus he replaced Paul with Bassem Balaa and entered Georges Chibani on position 1 instead of Kenny, leaving the team with one foreigner. The Greens switched their defense to zone 2-3, similar to Jaish’s, relying on the players’ speed to activate the zone and fill in any possible defensive gaps cause by man to man defense. Therefore the Greens managed to beat several times the defensive system, penetrating and scoring from under the basket, while having the edge on their opponent’s attempts to beat their system thanks to the players’ speed and spreading. Georges Chibani was proving to be very resourceful, giving assists and turning the lead to Sagesse’s advantage. Thus ended the first quarter at a mere point difference 17-18, with Khatib as best scorer (9 pts), followed by Ward and Jaish’s Nour Sannam (8 points), noting that all of Sagesse points were scored by these 2 players. 

The second quarter started with the same starting lineup, featuring a noticeable speed-up from Jaish’s side, backed-up by a man to man defense on the Greens. Once again, Ward proves to be efficient both on the perimeter and under the basket, playing also successfully on the post and reaching double figures through his inside game. With Kenny replacing Ghattas, the team found himself with Georges Chibani on 1 and Kenny, now freer offensively to play as 2 or 3, besides Fadi on the wing. Thanks to Ward’s 3 pointer, Sagesse made a 5-0 run, with Chibani’s decisive assists in crucial times, raising the score to 25-20 with 7 minutes left till halftime. Kenny took again his PG position when Raca replaced Chibani with Ghattas. At this stage, Sagesse weren’t able to benefit from rebounds as much as Jaish, needing to focus more on offense. Robert Boudagher’s entrance granted Sagesse more edge on the height mismatch, adding a fuller presence of transition defense. Ward and Khatib proved to form a great duo, with Khatib on the assists and Ward under the basket. Thus Sagesse took an 8 points lead, with Ward as best scorer with 17 points. The Greens set pressure on defense, forcing Charif Azmi to ask for a time out, aiming at fixing the gaps as his team managed to score 9 points only so far in the 2nd qaurter, reflecting Dragan Raca’s success in creating a defensive system that urged his opponent to commit turnovers, and reaching half time with a Lebanese lead 42-30. 
A totally “Green” quarter where Sagesse made the difference, displaying high level basketball and probably reaching the game’s turning point.

The second half started with Fadi, Kenny, Ward, Robert and Joe as starters, with Joe still doing a fine job. Jaish’s Baker was being paralyzed by Ward’s quickness, as Sagesse returned to zone defense. The game heated up, especially with Ghattas’ fast breaks and Kenny who is even using his left hand in scoring in spite of his health condition, going further in fast breaks and steals. Nonetheless, Dragan Raca was forced to rest him and replace with Georges Chibani again. Despite of the tight man to man defense, Chibani was still proving to be great, threatening the opponents with his successful 3 pointers, penetrating deep and creating dangerous opportunities accompanied by Balaa on offensive rebounds. The game pace increased with both teams scoring. Sagesse offensive edge returned with Kenny back, without losing however their defensive grip, mainly the Zone defense that is so far proving to be extremely efficient. But Jaish managed to reduce the gap to 9 points, especially with the players committing many turnovers. The quarter was mostly to Al Jaish’s advantage, who managed to achieve an unbelievable come back, reducing the gap from 18 points to 2! On the other hand, it was a dramatic quarter to the Greens, almost destroying all they have buit so far in the 1st 2 quarters! With a score of 60-54, Sagesse defense needed badly to strengthen and find itself again. 

The final quarter saw the entrance of Maurice Boukanaan for the 1st time in WASL, in addition to Chibani, Kenny, Ward and Fadi El Khatib. 
The opponents were still proving their will to build on their come back momentum, especially after reducing the gap to 4 points and getting better on the offensive rebounds. On the other hand, Sagesse were still wasting chances while rushing their passes and failing from the perimeter, allowing the Syrians to achieve an alarming 4-0 run, things were starting to get extremely serious. Chibani was the savior in this crucial moment, resting his team with his superb 3 pointer. Al Jaish started to commit turnovers, their coach was forced to ask for a time-out.
Boudagher and Kenny were back on court again as Al Jaish were still better on rebounds and benefiting from fouls committed on them, especially Holden who managed to get 2 fouls from Robert. Thus the gap was again reduced to 2 points. Despite of the Jaish Zone defense, the Greens were still managing to penetrate and get fouls, especially via Ward. 
It was clear that more defense and less turnovers were is requested from the Greens in order to stay in the game. The team got slightly affected when Ward fouled out, as he showed his versatility on various positions and was the scorer of the game so far. It was Bassem who took over Ward’s task and helped in crucial time, scoring a superb 3 pointer with 3 minutes remaining. Dragan Raca asks for a time-out, tightens the defense, then a double team on Nour el Samman pushes him to commit a clock violation, while his team craved for every opportunity. On the other hand, Khatib proves once again his experience and high skill when it comes to money times and critical free throws, from whixh he managed to keep the lead for his team, becoming the game’s figures leader with 27 points and 7 rebounds. 
Even though rushing their passes, the Greens still managed to keep the lead, with fouls granted to the shining “Tiger” who scored all of his free throws, thus securing the victory at 1 minute 30 seconds remaining with a score of 82-70. Yervant Avakian stepped in at less than 2 seconds remaining and the game ended with Kenny’s 3 pointer right at the buzzer, stopping the final score at 86-76 to Sagesse. 

After tomorrow’s game against Iranian Sanam, the nqurter finals opponents will be revealed, hoping that the games’ issues won’t produce the unwanted clash with the only other Lebanese team Blue Stars in case the Greens fail to top their group and fall 2nd, as they will play the quarter final against Blue Stars, the 3rd of the other group.

-Some stats:
  * Fadi Khatib: 32 points - 9 rebounds - 3 assists - 3 steals
  * Jerod Ward: 28 points - 3 rebounds - 1 assist - 2 steals
  * Kenny Satterfield: 11 points - 3 rebounds - 5 assists - 3 steals
  * Georges Chibani: 6 points - 2 rebounds - 2 assists - 1 steal
  * Bassem Balaa: 5 point - 3 rebounds - 1 steal
  * Joe Ghattas: 2 points - 5 rebounds - 6 assists - 1 steal
  * Robert Boudagher: 2 points - 2 rebounds - 1 steal
  * Paul Khoury: 4 rebounds - 1 assist