INDIANAPOLIS -- There was nothing even close to a medal at stake. There were barely enough people in the stands to fill a bus when the game started.

Don't try to tell the players from Algeria and Lebanon their game Tuesday morning in the RCA Dome was the least important of the World Championships.

In a matchup of teams making their World Championships debut, Algeria beat Lebanon 100-70 for 15th place in the 16-team tournament.

The smile on Moured Boughedir's face said it all after he scored 20 points to help Algeria (1-4) to the victory.

''Since this was our first time here we thought we would be playing for 14th, 15th, 16th place,'' he said. ''Now we can go home with a win in the World Championships. I hope I can come again.

''The people at home will react well to this. We played well and played hard. They should recognize we know how to play.''

The Algerian team certainly knew how to play in the second half. Lebanon (0-5) led 43-42 at halftime. Algeria led 76-58 after three quarters and pulled away in the final period.

''We had a one-point lead at halftime and then just gave up, plain and simple,'' said Joseph Vogel, who played at Colorado State and was drafted by the Seattle SuperSonics in 1996. ''I have never given up in my life and that's what so frustrating. I'm so frustrated at my teammates.''

It was a wild tournament for the Lebanese players as coach Johnny Neumann was fired after the first round of the tournament. Neumann, who led the NCAA in scoring in 1970-71 and played in the NBA and ABA, was let go over some disparaging comments he made about the Lebanon Basketball Federation in an ongoing feud with them.

Vogel was asked how chaotic things had been since the firing on Sunday.

''About as chaotic as it was before,'' he said.

Milcud Doubal was 6-for-10 from 3-point range and had 30 points for Algeria, while Samir Mehnaoui had 23 points and was 5-for-8 from long range.

''This win is good for our morale,'' said Algeria coach Billal Faid, who bears an uncanny resemblance to Memphis coach John Calipari. ''I hope our organization in Algeria gets better because of this and that would help improve the team. Our goal is to keep improving and get better and with this win we have a chance to be a better team.''

Both Algeria and Lebanon were competitive in some of their earlier games until fatigue caught up with them and allowed the countries used to this kind of competition to pull away.

''You can't tell me a team that can stay with Puerto Rico for 2½ quarters can have a second half like we did today,'' said Vogel, who had 11 points and six rebounds.

Vogel, a native of North Platte, Neb., played professionally in Lebanon for two seasons and was naturalized as a citizen. He said basketball is the No. 1 sport in the country and there's plenty of interest.

''They have great facilities and the fan base is excellent,'' he said. ''These guys have to get used to playing on the highest level of competition and things will start to change when they know they're going to have a chance to win.''

The importance of winning for the first time in such a prestigious tournament wasn't lost on the Algerian players, even if there were just 56 fans in the stands at the 11 a.m. tipoff in a building that is set up to hold a crowd of 32,500.

''Our first sport is still soccer,'' Boughedir said. ''Now we have a World Championships win in basketball. That was our goal and we're going home with it.''