LE MANS (Basketball Champions League) – Le Mans Sarthe defeated Khimik on Tuesday night with the exact same score they had prevailed over Reyer Venezia in the opening week of the Regular Season, 68-49. The French side remain joint-leaders of Group B together with Maccabi Rand Media and the only team so far to have held opponents below the 50-point threshold in two games.

Nonetheless, Le Mans head coach Erman Kunter still though his team could have done a little bit better. "It was an important game for us because in this competition we want to win our home games," the Turkish tactician said. "If we win all our home games, we will qualify for sure. One problem I saw is that whenever we thought we had build a big gap we lost focus. I am not criticising the players, it is human mentality to lose concentration if you think the opponent is not reacting."

Le Mans held Khimik to a disastrous 3-of-26 from three-point range while the Ukranian team also did not help their case by missing eight of their 18 free-throws. Ryan Pearson had a superb third quarter and reached his 20 points before the final frame, while Giordan Watson finished with 11 points and four rebounds for the winners.

"It was a good victory because taking care of homecourt is very important for us, it is something we talked about," said Warson. "It is still early in the season but this is what we want to do, play strong on every possession and continue doing well in both competitions. We got to take the defence and the rebounds with us on the road and limit the turnovers to give ourselves a chance to win the next game."