(trophy) Australia U21 Continental Champs! (trophy)
(32774) In a very close finish, great defense has held China off, giving Australia its second Continental Championship in consecutive years! It was fantastic to have such a great crew in chat throughout the game adding heaps of positive comments about u21, and getting into the game. These guys are Australia's premium juniors, and make no mistake, the Australia senior NT will be bolstered in a few seasons when the high potential guys in this team, along with some of the few seasons previous come of age.
The game was not without its twists and turns, But Australia was in control for a large part of the game, and out to a lead by as much as 21pts in the 3rd term. Stamina seemed to play a big role in the 4th quarter, or the BB gods simply wanted to keep both teams on edge (if you were in charge of a money making game, wouldn't you?).
The key to the game, from Chinas perspective was 7'5, 82k Power Forward
Wu Shuoyi. With a DMI 2.5x that of 20yr old Cadeo Phan, Australia certainly looked to be the underdogs. But no one told the young lad that. In what was an unbelievable performance, Phan scored at a high clip of 58% against the giant, knocked in two clutch 3pters to blow the game wide open in the 3rd term, and most importantly, drew 6 fouls on Shuoyi, sending him to the bench in 27mins of playing time. And just when China had all the momentum in the last qurter, they stumbled with Shuoyi on the pine, and could not find a hero to continue his momentum of 65% shooting accuracy.
Grand Final MVP (BB)
It must be something about 20yr old bigs stepping up in big games (see Michael Bridgewater in this post [message=261280.128 ] because Cadeo "Massive" Phan was incredible, going head to head with a monster of a man, and being the one left on the court at the end of the game to steer their team home.
We had 5 managers in chat vote at the end of the game, the final results were:
Cadeo Phan: 3,3,3,3=
12 votesCortez Ryan- 3*,2,2,2,2=
11 votesJacki Chan- 2,1,1=
4 votesMaverick Parkes- 1,1,1-
3 votes* Champ_is_here voted, and as the owner of Cadeo Phan, he felt it was unbiased to leave his player, Phan, out of his votes. It is obvious to see where the admirable character Phan is exposed to in that type of nurturing and unselfish environment!