The third week of the Lebanese Basketball Championship saw Sagesse recover from its defeat against Cafe Najjar last week, beating Anibal Zahle 108-79 at the Zahle Basketball center on Saturday.
Sagesse’s new import, former NBA player Willie Burton, made his debut for the Achrafieh club, scoring 19 points and grabbing 10 rebounds. Despite missing Elie Mechantaf, who was suspended for 18 months after testing positive for drugs, Sagesse dominated the game from start to finish with point guard Eric Chatfield leading the scorers with 35 points while Fadi Khatib added 33 points.
Meanwhile Riyadi recorded its first win of the season beating Antranik 80-64 at the Saeb Salam Center in Manara. Despite the 16-point gap in the final score, the game was not an easy ride for the Beiruti club as Antrannik managed to keep up with Riyadi’s pace during most of the game. However, Riyadi players managed to pull ahead in the final quarter, scoring 19 points and keeping their opponents to only 10 points.
Despite the win, Riyadi head coach Ghassan Sarkis was not pleased with his team’s performance, especially the foreign players. Sources say that Sarkis might release all non-Lebanese Riyadi players because of their poor performance so far in the championship.
Meziara withdrew from the game against Champville, which had been scheduled for Sunday. Meziara has thus been relegated to the second division after forfeiting three consecutive games. The third week matches were kicked off Wednesday with Cafe Najjar beating Antranik 86-81. ­ Y.H.