Match Report Australia V Pilipinas
Semi Final of Asian Championship (13/9/13)
Final Score Australia 72 defeated by the Pilipinas 84
Nickname legend
Chung Trieu = The Truth
Poluta'u Brar = Polar Bear
Claude Goolagong = Evonnes Son
Andrew Garachico = Chico Roll
Brad Baldyga = Bald Guy
Roosevelt Feaunati = Ted
Michael Wayne = The Duke
Shane Goodes = Goodsy
Albert Sacks = Hessian Bag
Will Williams = Tic Tac
Burl Barth = Bath Water
Sercombe =Combover
Wang =Wang Chung
Sapwell = Sappy
Wombat King = Mickyster
After a 2 and a half hour bus trip from Melbourne to the Country Victorian town of Heywood, the Aussie Under 21s warmed up at the legendary 23,800 seat Arena of the mighty 4th Division team the Heywood Big Dogs.
With another 1200 seats under construction the Kennel as it is affectionately known is one of the biggest stadiums in Aussie Buzzerbeater.
The gallant Aussies who had been maligned and written off pre-season because of their lack of talls, had made it all the way through to tonights Asian Championships semi final against the 8th ranked Pilipina team by compiling some impressive victories against much higher ranked nations and in doing so had climbed from a world ranking of 41 up to 21st
Knowing that a win tonight would take them directly into the main draw for next seasons World U21 cup, much though and pre match discussion had gone into what strategies and line up to put on court.
With training having to occur just before the tip off of the game, a few of the key players were down on gameshape most notably The Duke who despite a strong gameshape, had had his DMI nearly halved from the previous weeks game, and so the decision was made to play a motion offence perhaps in the anticipation that the Pilipinas would play a 2 3 zone as they had done so in all their previous big games.
First hand on the ball for the game was the Dukes who tapped it down to Wang Chung who missed the layup, but a couple of minutes later put the first score on the board when he sunk one of two free throws, the Pilipinas big man Vescathco quickly put his team back in the lead before Ted scored a layup to put the Aussies back in front.
As the quarter progressed it became obvious that the venue, The Kennel, was quite fitting as this game had become a real Dog Fight and 9 minutes in, the scores were 8 all with the Aussies having missed 7 of 9 field goal attempts and only hit 4 of 10 free throws.
The last 2 and a half minutes of the 1st quarter saw the Aussies get out to a nice 6 point lead with Tic Tac hitting 2 of 3, 3 point attempts, Wang Chung getting a lay up, before the Pilipinas closed to within 2 points at quarter time with 2 late baskets making the score 16 to 14 Australias way.
Within 5 seconds of the start of the 2nd quarter, Wayne had been called for his 3rd foul and panic was starting to enter into the Aussies camp, 19 to 10 down on rebounds how would the Aussies fare if the Duke was to foul out?
Luckily Tic Tac was finally in a mind to play basketball to his true potential being defensively sound against both Porter (44K centre) and Cantara (30K SF), whilst continuing to hit points himself and when The Duke found his range first with a 2 pointer, then a 3 and then some free throws followed by a dunk, the Aussies had snuck out to a 9 point lead with 5 minutes left in the 2nd , which could have been 11 points if the Hessian Bag had of hit 2 free throws.
As a good team does the Pilipinas regrouped after a time out and closed the gap back to 6 points before Wang Chung, Ted and then Bath Water missed shots.
A late goal to the Pilipinas saw them close to within 4 points, 33 to 29 at half time in a low scoring game.
Continued in the next post
Last edited by Sid Vicious at 9/14/2013 10:17:03 PM