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Al-Riyadi beat La Sagesse 111-78 at the Saeb Salam stadium (Manara) on Friday, now leading the final series of the Lebanese basketball championship 2-1.
After a narrow loss to La Sagesse last Wednesday (85-84), Al-Riyadi responded strongly with a 33-point victory at home in Manara.
Al-Riyadi coach Ahmad Farran had selected a starting five comprising Hayk Gyokchyan, Karim Zeinoun, Wael Arakji, Jonathan Simmons, and Thon Maker. For his part, Sagesse coach Jad el-Hajj opted for Serbian Niko Rakocevic, Ahmad Ibrahim, Omar Jamaleddine, Mel Gibson, and Karim Ezzedine.
For the second time in this series, and in front of their home crowd at Manara Stadium, Al-Riyadi led the way with a comfortable lead of over 30 points.
Great Game for Hayk
Hayk Gyokchyan played a crucial role in this match.
Indeed, in addition to being the game’s leading scorer, he finished the game top of the charts in points scored with 25 in total, 8 rebounds, and ranked third in assists with a total of 4.
Defensive Problems
Away from their fans, the La Sagesse players struggled to impose themselves on the pitch. Defensively, they found it difficult to stop the attacks of the players in yellow, who multiplied their three-point shooting
with an impressive success rate of 50% (13/26). In comparison, La Sagesse converted just 7 three-point shots out of 27 attempts, a percentage of just 25%.
Serbian Nicolas Rakocevic was Sagesse’s top scorer with 15 points, but his playing time was limited by a high number of personal fouls.
Al-Riyadi dominated and controlled the game throughout. The turning point of the game came at the end of the third quarter, when the gap went from 15 points to 25-30 points in favor of the Yellows.
Next Game
The next game in this best-of-7 series takes place on Saturday, May 18 at 9:45 PM in Ghazir, the Green team’s home ground. The question now is whether Sagesse will manage to level the series at 2-2, or whether Al-Riyadi will win again to take a 3-1 lead and move a step closer to the coveted title.
The answer to that question will be revealed very soon!
