BEIRUT: A gutsy fourth-quarter effort wasn’t enough for Champville to overcome Iranian giants Mahram Sunday as they went down 67-64 in Group B of the WABA League.Champville now finish the group runners up to Mahram who move into the next round as top seeds along with Group A winners Riyadi.
While Champville’s fourth-quarter display was an encouraging sign, their first-half performance left much to be desired, and it will disappoint the club that their talisman Fadi al-Khatib was unable to have much influence in the final minutes of the game.
Instead, Elie Stephan stepped up to nail three 3-pointers to lead Champville’s charge after being behind by 19 points going into the last quarter.
“We had a terrible first half,” said Champville coach Ghassan Sarkis in an interview with the FIBA website. “Once you hand out a team like Mahram the advantage, the task was always going to be uphill ... I am happy with the way we fought back and made it a one-ball game in the end.”
Before the match, the game was built up as a battle of Asia’s top two stars, Khatib and Mahram’s Iranian international Samad Bahrami, and it was the latter who came away with the plaudits after a winning performance – although he turned the ball over a worrying nine times.
“I am happy we didn’t give away too many points to Fadi in the fourth quarter. If we had allowed him to like he did in the first half, we would have been in real trouble,” said Mahram coach Mostafa Hashemi. “We were expecting the backlash ... I think the defense held itself rather well in the fourth quarter ... Of course they scored quite high in the fourth quarter, but then you must take into account we were playing a team of great experience and quality.”
Champville’s usually dominant front court of Sam Hoskin and Garnett Thompson was held to just 18 points as they were squashed by former NBA players Nikoloz Tskitishvili – one of the league’s most notorious draft busts, going fifth in the draft before averaging two points a game for his career – and Papa Sow who combined for 29 points.
Mahram built up a 13-point lead in the first half with Champville completely disorientated in the face of one of Asia’s best sides. Mahram looked to have consolidated the game in the third quarter as they held Champville to just nine points giving them a 19-point lead at 52-33 before Champville rallied in the last quarter.