Story by Ian Chew/Red Sports. Photos by Lai Jun Wei/Red Sports.
Jurong East Sports Complex, Saturday, 28 June, 2008 – A late fourth quarter shooting spree from Cagers point guard Wong Wei Long (#5) finally broke the brave resistance of CLS Knights as his team followed up their opening win by edging out the Indonesians 56-52 in a closely fought second round match.
The Knights started the game brightly, led by quick passing and the accurate shooting of their inspirational captain Charly Affandi (#7). They jumped to a 5-0 lead before Cagers replied through their giant Taiwanese centres to tie the game at 5-5. A long 3-pointer from Cagers forward Ng Han Bin (#35) pushed the score to 8-5. This see-saw battle between the two teams lasted throughout the rest of the game.
At this point the Cagers’ strategy was simple: get the ball down low to their centres for them to do their damage. Both Wu Dai Hao (#23) and Ha Xiao Yuan (#77) dominated the paint, combining for 10 of their team’s 17 first quarter points. Their inside defense and rebounding also restricted the Indonesian team to mostly single-shot opportunities in each attacking play.
However, even the Taiwanese imports could do nothing about the confident shooting of the team in black. Adopting a quick passing and running game, the Knights clearly hoped to catch the home crowd favourites on their back foot during their transition. When left open, the CLS Knights also punished the Cagers with lethal shooting accuracy. The Knights ended the first quarter with a 20-17 lead from Jefry’s (#0) 3-pointer.
Gradually though, the Cagers team began to impose themselves on the Knights, taking advantage of the size differentials of their centres to create openings for their forwards. Vice captain Desmond Oh (#2) also showed quick hands to steal and feed his captain Hong Wei Jian (#10) for the easy lay up. Desmond himself contributed six points in the second quarter as well.
Cagers could easily have been in the lead if they had not turned the ball over on numerous occasions through poor decision making. Instead it was the Knights who ended with the first half leading 33-32.
Both teams started the second half warily, probing each other for signs of weakness while paying greater attention to stopping their opponents from scoring.
One can only stop players of Wu Dai Hao’s calibre for a limited time though.
Showing good team awareness as well as great footwork, the lumbering 2.03m former NCAA player moved with surprising quickness to create and score. The Indonesians struggled to contain such offensive quality and ended up sending both him and Ha Xiao Yuan frequently to the foul line. An inability to convert most of their foul shots ensured that the Cagers lead was a slim 41-39 at the end of the third.
Emboldened by their team’s advantage in rebounding, Desmond and Wei Long exploded in the fourth quarter with contributions from beyond the arc. Wei Long, in particular, shook off his first half blues to down three 3-pointers in the fourth quarter alone. Another converted free throw attempt by Ha Xiao Yuan gave the Cagers an unassailable four-point lead with nine seconds to play, much to the delight of the crowd.
A modest Wei Long refused to take credit for his late game heroics however.
“Someone had to carry the team by taking the open shots and I happened to be free,” he said.
He also gave a sobering analysis of his team’s performance.
“We still need to improve in cutting down our turnovers as a team. We also tried to penetrate too much in the first three quarters. It was at the instruction of our coaches that we switched to shooting from long range in the fourth quarter and it paid off,” he continued.
Does the win mean that the Cagers are favourites against the Malaysian league champions Seremban Ringa Timor since they lost to the CLS Knights on the first night?
“No, the ball is round,” was his smiling reply.
In another match, the Malaysian SRT cruised to a 79-59 victory over the Malaysian Junior Men’s team. The match was akin to watching the Malaysian Senior team take on the Junior team on Singapore soil, since the SRT boasted of seven current national players.
Despite being on the losing side, top scorer Ong Chun Kee was glad for the experience of playing such high level opposition.
“We are still a very young side and have much to learn. I am happy just to have the opportunity of playing in this tournament,” he said. He scored 13 points for his team.
The Cagers will take on the Seremban Ringa Timor team on the final day of the Cagers Asia Basketball Challenge on Sunday 29 June evening to determine the winner of the inaugural trophy. Be sure to catch the exciting action at Jurong East Sports Complex!
Scorers for the Cagers team:
Wong Wei Long (#5) – 13 points
Ha Xiao Yuan (#77) – 12 points
Desmond Oh (#2) – 11 points
Wu Dai Hao (#23) – 9 points
Hong Wei Jian (#10) – 4 points
Ng Han Bin (#35) – 4 points
More pictures in the gallery.
thanks for catching the mistake. 🙂
photo5 is not weilong.. lol mistake!