ZOUK MIKAEL (Lebanon) - Sagesse SC booked a second trip to the FIBA WASL Final after keeping their mastery of Kuwait Club, 87-74, in the 2026 Semi-Finals, Saturday night at the Nouhad Nawfal Sports Complex.
The Green Castle turned it around in the second chapter, pulled away wide in the third, and then finished strongly to once again top a team they had previously beaten in the exact same stage during the 2024 tilt in Qatar.
And just like what happened in Doha, they're marching on to the Big Dance to have another waltz with Al Riyadi for the crown, standing in the way of a team gunning for a historic 'three-peat' in the pan-regional contest.
It will also be a rematch of the 2025-26 Lebanese Basketball Championship Finals, with Sagesse hoping to flip the script in their favor this time around after bowing in the best-of-7 series that went the distance.
"Kuwait came into the game ready but Sagesse never backed down. We showed real fight - we fought for every ball, we fought for every possession. We deserve to be here," offered head coach Joe Ghattas.
AJ English led Sagesse with 23 points, 7 rebounds, and 6 assists in a solid return after missing the last game due to medical reasons. Deshawndre Washington finished with 22 points, 10 rebounds, and 8 assists.
Jamal Jones, despite incurring 3 fouls barely 8 minutes into the game, supplied 18 points as the reinforcements helped keep things in control after the team lost Youssef Khayat to an ankle injury during the third canto.
He left the game at the 8:05-mark but instead of collapsing, the crew even grew the lead further, with Karim Ezzedine and the foreign troika putting together a 10-0 run toward a 63-46 lead with 4:52 to go.
Ezzedine and Jones would also help restore order when the Brigadiers cut what was once an 18-point spread to just 7 with 3:33 to go, hitting back-to-back jumpers to make it an 82-71 count entering the last 2 minutes.
On the other hand, Christian Brown and Dae Dae Grant had 20 points each and combined for 9 rebounds in the loss that foiled Kuwait Club's bid of reaching the Final for the first time since the 2023 inaugurals.
The Hasan Brothers in Moh and Hamad added 11 apiece for the Kuwaitis, who will face Al Ula Club in the Third-Place Game on Sunday as well in another meeting between budding WASL-Gulf League rivals.
FIBA