SAGESSE Sports Club scored the first eight points of the ball game and never looked back as it took a wire-to-wire rout over the Zamboanga Valientes 90-65 to leave the Philippine side winless in the 34th Dubai International Basketball Championship at the Al Nasr Club.
NBA veteran and former PBA import Shabazz Muhammad fired 17 points in the first half as the club from Beirut took a 46-24 lead at the interval – a lead they’d never relinquish despite some solid play from Prince Caperal in the third period.
READ: Valientes blow big lead again in Dubai loss to Al Ahly
With Sagesse taking a 25 point lead early in the third, the former Barangay Ginebra big man drained three treys and scored 14 points in the quarter as the Valientes got as close as 10, 58-48, giving some hope to the local side for a breakthrough after two tough losses.
But the Lebanese side quickly quelled that uprising, responding with a 12-2 run to bridge the third and fourth periods and put the lead back to 20, 70-50, a lead they’d extend to as many as 28 before cruising to the win.
Muhammad, who just last year suited up for a few games for Magnolia, finished with 32 points on an ultra-efficient 13-17 shooting to go along eight rebounds, two assists and two steals to tow Sagesse to its second win in three games.
Caperal was the lone bright spot for Zamboanga as he finished with 18 points on 6-8 shooting from the field.
Adonis Thomas also ended up with 18, but needed eight more shots than Caperal to get there as he made just five of his 16 attempts from the field.
Sam Deguara, the team’s leading scorer at 20.5 points a game, was limited to just nine points. Nic Cabanero added eight, while Malick Diouf hauled down 10 boards and swatted away two blocks for the now 0-3 Valientes.
Zamboanga will get less than 24 hours to regroup as it looks to end its campaign with a win against the Tunisia National Team on Wednesday, 9 PM.
Then on Thursday 1 AM, Strong Group Athletics will eye a sweep of its group when it takes on Amman United.
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