TEHRAN (Iran) - Shahrdary Gorgan swept Sagesse in their season series, 81-68, to stay perfect in the FIBA West Asia Super League (WASL), Thursday night at the Azadi Basketball Hall.

The home team was quick to shrug off a tepid start into the match and then broke the game wide open in the third quarter en route to notching their fourth win in as many games, as they remained unbothered on top of the Group A standings in the West Asia League.

Snapped, meanwhile, was the two-game winning streak of the Lebanese side, which fell to 2-2 as they lost to the same team that spoiled their league debut in Ghazir last November 15.

Game heroes: Will Cherry once again led the way for the victors with a game-high 21 points on a 40-percent shooting clip from the field, alongside 3 rebounds, 5 assists, and 3 steals.

Sina Vahedi punched in 18 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals, and a block. Big man Navid Rezaeifar provided 13 points and 4 assists, together with a steal.

Norvel Pelle finished with 12 points and 5 rebounds as he wowed the crowd with a dunkfest to add more flair to the breakaway. The athletic bruiser also racked up 6 blocks.

Turning point: Game was tied with under six minutes left in the opening chapter until Vahedi kick-started an 10-3 run to give themselves a 19-12 advantage before the period ended.

Momentum would never drift away from Gorgan since, with Cherry and the rest of the squad breaking away in the third canto that saw them build a 56-39 lead with under four minutes to go, marking the beginning of a lopsided affair as their foes couldn't find any answer.

Stats don't lie: Arsalan Kazemi only scored a point but collected 12 rebounds, giving him 160 total to cement his place as the rebounding leader of the FIBA WASL-West Asia League.

They said: "This was a really hard game. Sagesse are really good but they didn't have a point guard with them. This wasn't an easy game. They played intensely for 40 minutes, and they didn't hold off anything. My players work really hard every day with their commitment. To this game I thank them." - Mostafa Hashemi, Head Coach, Shahrdary Gorgan

"I wanna congratulate my teammates, they worked really hard prior to this game and the coaching staff as well. We know that this is gonna get us a lot closer in playing in the FInal Phase. Sagesse is a great team. But I know suddenly, Pierre Jackson left their team but they signed another awesome player, Jonathan Gibson. He's very well-known in Iran because he played in Petrochimi. I think they really have a high chance. We might meet again." - Arsalan Kazemi, Shahrdary Gorgan

"Everyone knows now that we're suffering from not having a point guard. Pierre Jackson left last week. We signed a new guy, he will be with us next week. You can see from the start, they forced us, honestly, to do 21 turnovers. Of course, they scouted us, they know we don't have a point guard. They put a lot of pressure [on us]. We made 21 TOs and only 9 assists in 40 minutes, which is hard to win games. We tried to control some defensive stops. In the end we won one quarter, which was the last one. Of course, it's not enough to win." - Jad El Hajj, Head Coach, Sagesse

FIBA