SASSARI (Basketball Champions League) - For long stretches of Wednesday night's first leg of the Play-Offs Round of 16 game in Sardinia between Dinamo Sassari and Le Mans Sarthe, Alexandre Menard had to think he might get his first win as the head coach of the French side.

A fourth quarter romp by the home team, however, put that notion to bed as Sassari claimed a 79-63 victory.

The Italian outfit, stuck in third gear for three quarters, shifted into overdrive over the final 10 minutes when it outscored Menard's team, 27-12, to claim a 16-point advantage on aggregate in the tie.

Remembering how they prevailed by 22 in their home leg against CEZ Nymburk in the opening game of the Play-Off Qualifier tie, only to then fall behind by as many as 31 in the Czech Republic before staging a late recovery, Sassari's players will know that anything is possible when they meet Le Mans again in France next week.

But a French side that faded fast in the final quarter in Sardinia will have to play one of its best games of the season if it's to win by 17 points or more and advance to the Quarter-Finals.

Petr Cornelie's 3-ball at the start of the fourth quarter put the visitors in front, 54-52, but it was all downhill from there for Le Mans, who parted with coach Erman Kunter in early February after a heavy domestic league defeat to Strasbourg and promoted Menard to the top job.

After Cornelie's basket, the hosts went on a 22-4 run over the next seven minutes to seize command with Gani Lawal pouring in 10 of his game-high 19 points in the run.

Dusko Savanovic started the spurt with an offensive rebound and put-back and finished it with a 3-ball and David Bell, who seems to have important 3-pointers to hurt opponents in big situations game in and game out, drilled a shot from the arc and had another basket.

Rok Stipcevic, one of Sassari's stars all season long, came off the bench and almost had a double-double. He finished with 10 points and 9 assists.

Thank goodness for coach Federico Pasquini that he has Lawal on his roster because he brings a toughness on the interior that the team desperately needs. Sassari, maybe because the players are tired, lacked intensity for three quarters but with Lawal scoring and also corralling a team-high 9 rebounds, they had enough to win comfortably.

Olivier Hanlan led Le Mans in scoring on the night. He hit all four of his attempts from long range but was just 1 of 8 inside the arc and had 15 points. The only other MSB player to hit double figures in points was Ryan Pearson with 10.