Game 1 vs Xingers
This was our first game, I was not present but understand that we did not play well. The good news, our opponent did not perform too. Probably due to first game jitters, both team struggle and the match was a scrappy affair. I understand they were unable to contain JR's inside game and we won 45-34. Ugly but we had our 1st win in the bag.
Game 2 vs T-Net
Coach Low was unavailable and Yeang Cherng was playing for another team at the same time. So I was asked to help call the game from the sidelines. T-Net is a youth team coached by an ex-national player. They looked a decent team though no particular player stoodout during the warmups. We only had 7 players dress up for the start so instruction was to control the tempo and try to feed JR in the paint.
We did not start the game well, our perimeter defence was poor and gave plenty of good looks from 3-pt zone. T-Net captalised and hit at least 4 3-pts in the 1st quarter alone. We trailed by as much as 8 points early in the game but managed to close the gap to around 4pts by end of 1Q. By 2Q, we knew we had the advantage in the paint. We switched to a half court man-to-man defence and T-Net was reduced to trying their luck with long range shots. With better defence, we eventually took the lead in the 2Q thru' strong play from Jiaren and Jiacheng. However T-Net refused to fade away, each time we open up the lead, they would hit some shots (largely due to our defensive lapse on the perimeter) to close the gap.
Start of 3Q, T-Net came out with a half-court press. We fumbled initially and allowed then to close the gap to 1 pt. After a timeout, we re-grouped and handled the half-court press better. Managed to break the press and open the lead back to 6pts, T-Net went back to a zone defence after that. Slowly, we built the lead to double digits but towards the end of the game, defensive lapses allowed T-Net to hit some long range bombs to close the gap to 3pts. Fortunately, they were in a penalty situation so we managed to kill the game from the charity stripe. Final score : 59-53. 2 wins from 2 game.
Game 3 vs Wee Tiong
It was supposed to be a stroll as our opponents are mostly in their 30s (if I guess correctly) so I was shock to see us leading only by 2pts when I arrived at the end of the 1Q. According to Simon, we were not hitting our shots thus the close scoreline but to be fair, I think Wee Tiong played better than expected and also had a few big players who can handle JR in the paint. Defensively, we were kind of naive, going for the easy fakes and poor perimeter defence allowed several uncontested shots. We ended the 2Q up by only 2 points.
Start of the 3Q was no different as the game remained closed. But midway thru 3Q, the difference in age showed. Jiacheng capitalised by hitting 2 3pointers and a few drives to the basket. Within minutes, we built a double digit lead heading into the 4Q. We continue to cruise in the 4Q, widening the lead further. With less than 3 minutes to go, Wee Tiong had no choice but to play man to man. Again we did not handle the press well and had successive turnovers. This allowed Wee Tiong to score some points but it was a case of too little too late. We won our 3rd game 58-45.
Game 4 vs Yuen Tat
This is a veteran team who has also won all their game so far. From earlier games, we can see that they have good ball movement and a few perimeter shooters. They also have a good mix of young and old.
This was our 1st game with 12 players, we started brightly with Dingyuan hitting 3 outside shots and we led by 8pt in the early stages. Yuen Tat was clearly aware of JR presence in the paint and they counter by double or triple team him whenever he touches the ball. From then on, both team were evenly matched but we managed to hold on to our early lead.
We started the 3Q resting all our starters except JR. Yuen Tat made a few runs but each time we responded and managed to maintain a cushion of around 6pts for the entire 3Q. The strategy paid dividends as our starters are fresh foer the 4Q. By the 4Q, Yuen Tat was getting frustrated and getting physical in their play. They started to press but we did not panick and managed to score some easy baskets of their press. Hongkai drilled the nail in the coffin when he hit 2 base line jumpers to kill Yuen Tat's comeback spirits. We could have won by a bigger margin if not for the missed free throws near the end of the game. Noetheless, we are happy to settle for our 4th win. In the end, it was a strong effort by all 12 players that won us the game, everyone played with effort and followed instructions.
Summary
The NBL team will be playing their 2nd round matches (4 matches in 10 days) from 11Oct to 21Oct. If we have a full team, I think we have good chance of making the semis. However, the 2nd round opponents are stronger and we will miss the school boys (Jiacheng, Weixuan and Ravins) who were instrumental in our earlier wins. If you are available, do come down to the Singapore Basket Center to support our own chaps. Fixtures to be announced later.
