ZOUK MIKAEL (Lebanon) - Sagesse SC boosted their chances of reaching the Semi-Finals following a 113-90 romping over BC Astana in the FIBA WASL Final 8 2025 at the Stade Nouhad Naufal, Wednesday night.
The Green Castle pulled away from a slim one-point lead late in the second chapter and never looked back on the way to finding redemption after suffering a 101-71 defeat to Al Riyadi in the Beirut Derby two nights ago.
But more importantly, the crew strengthened their bid of advancing to the last four as they improved to 2-1 in Group A, and will now hope for Ittihad Club to lose against the defending champions to secure as much.
The WASL-Gulf League runners-up improved to 1-1 following a 79-76 win against the CABA representatives on Tuesday night and are looking to beat the 2-0 Riyadi later tonight in order to keep their own hopes alive.
If they do, that would force a three-way tie at 2-1 in the group although Sagesse have the inside track of getting to the next stage as they dealt their Saudi Arabian counterparts a 99-69 beating in their Final 8 opener.
But of course, they no longer want to worry about any complications to arise, and will basically be cheering for their long-time rivals to get the job done - and instead think of preparing for the Semi-Finals.
"After our hard loss in the previous game, we reacted very well," said head coach Ilias Zouros. "We played together. We fought. I'm very satisfied with the effort. The most important thing is to qualify for the Semi-Finals."
Offense came from various sources for Sagesse, with spitfire guard Zach Lofton producing 23 points on 7-of-13 shooting from the floor - including six of the team's 19 three-pointers - alongside 5 rebounds.
Marc Khoueiry came through with 17 points. Gerard Hadidian delivered 16 points and 7 rebounds. Eli Rustom made 13 points while Jad Khalil and Cady Lalanne chipped in 10 points apiece as six finished in twin digits.
A free-agent signing prior to Round 2 of the recent WASL-West Asia League, Rustom started and led the key 9-0 run toward a 50-40 lead approaching the three-minute mark of the aforementioned period.
Lalanne and Johnny O'Bryant then got going to help out in another rally, before Khalil knocked down a trifecta to push their lead to 62-47 with only 33 seconds remaining before the halftime intermission.
It would be all Sagesse since, with their lead swelling to as big as 26, 111-85, following a Lofton triple entering the game's final minute as they went on to send Astana home winless in their three games.
Grigorii Motovilov led the team from Kazakhstan with 25 points and 7 rebounds. Vadim Chsherbak was his lone backup with 18 points, 5 rebounds, and 3 assists in the loss where they committed 22 turnovers.
This marks the second time in a row that Astana won't reach the Semi-Finals after doing so during the Final 8 inaugurals in Dubai back in 2023, where they went on to finish third after beating Al Riyadi.
FIBA