ZOUK MIKAEL (Lebanon) - There was hardly any feeling of a rivalry affair as Al Riyadi overpowered Sagesse SC, 86-59, to move a win away from sweeping Round 1 of the 2024/2025 FIBA WASL-West Asia League, Saturday.
The Sub-Zone League's three-peat seekers overcame a tepid start, took the lead for good in the second period, and then put the game away as early as the third canto - much to the disappointment of the Green Castle fans that filled the Nouhad Nawfal Stadium that some of them already headed to the exits early in the final frame.
No one can't put them at fault, for many anticipated another thrilling encounter like what happened during last year's Final 8 championship bout in Doha, Qatar that needed extra five minutes to be settled.
What they witnessed instead was a lopsided affair in favor of the reigning WASL champions, who have now racked up their third win in as many games and are so far the only remaining team without a loss.
The squad of Coach Ahmad Farran could complete the First Round sweep with a victory against the 0-3 Al Difaa Al Jawi in the final match of the window on Sunday night. Game time is at 22:00 local time.
Game heroes: Hayk Gyokchyan top-scored for Al Riyadi with 17 points on 6-of-9 shooting from the field. Wael Arakji flirted with a double-double as he finished with 14 points, 6 rebounds, and 9 assists.
Karim Zeinoun had 14 points as well. Ily Diop supplied 12 points and 8 rebounds with a pair of blocks in the win that also served as a warm welcome to returning guard Amir Saoud as he's fully healthy.
In action again after spending the last two games on the sidelines, the lefty guard tallied 10 points as the coaches brought him back especially during the latter part of the match to get his rhythm flowing anew.
Turning point: Al Riyadi found themselves staring at a three-point deficit during the second chapter until Saoud and Ali Mansour joined hands for an 8-0 run to give themselves the 34-29 lead with 3:19 to go.
Zeinoun then joined the fray, and Diop followed suit as they began to create separation from Sagesse. Diop even beat the buzzer with a triple and that pushed their lead to 42-32 entering the halftime break.
Things would then turn from bad to worse for the wards of Coach Ilias Zouros. The Yellow Castle came out of the intermission roaring, with Arakji, Gyokchyan, and George King forming a solid troika and put together 10 unanswered points that inflated the lead to an even more comfortable cushion at 20, 52-32.
The opposition could no longer find any solution afterward, that the gap would reach as high as 33 points, 78-45, following a Saoud trifecta with less than eight minutes remaining in the fourth quarter.
Stats don't lie: Al Riyadi shot 53.8-percent from the floor in the victory, big thanks to their 20 assists. They dominated in the battle of the boards as well with 45, which was 13 more than what Sagesse had.
They said: "All credit and praise go to my players. They are the heroes of the night. They executed everything we talked about. Each and everyone did his job. They stepped up big time. We controlled the game defensively, especially on the rebounds. Fifty-nine points? This is amazing, and in front of a full house. I'm happy about this win. And I'm happy for my players. I'm so proud. But it's just the beginning. It's gonna be a long season. We will face each other a lot. We have a big season ahead and we are ready." - Ahmad Farran, Head Coach, Al Riyadi
"Sagesse always gives us a special game. It's the Derby. So, we wanted to enter this game fully focused, knowing that winning this game would put us on top of the table. This is what we did. We played one of our best games so far this season, and we did not take it easy on them. We're a team that doesn't speak outside the court, we speak on court, and we proved today that whatever we won last year was not a mistake. We wanna do the same this year and this is what we will be doing also." - Wael Arakji, Al Riyadi
"There was no game today. Unfortunately we didn't show up on the court. Only the shirts came today on the court. I would like to apologize first of all to our fans, to our management because they do the best for the team. I know they're supposed to be very disappointed because in basketball there are winners and losers. Today we didn't compete. That is the problem. We quit very early without reason, I don't understand why. We know what is going on. We're gonna do the changes that we have to do, for sure, inside the team ... For us the most important game now in this tournament is the game tomorrow." - Ilias Zouros, Head Coach, Sagesse SC
"We want to apologize to the fans, to the management, and also the coach. He does a lot for us. I feel like he really prepared for this game, and we did not play as a team at all. Obviously in the first quarter, the second quarter, we were competing. And then we just stopped playing. It's on us." - Shabazz Muhammad, Sagesse SC
FIBA