Well, we got the win in a hard fought game. New Zealand Crunched us, and we were probably unlucky to not win by more. So plenty to be happy with here as we go through to the next phase of the tournament.
The game in five
1. Barth saw some action early on in his debut game, and started well, getting a dunk and a block in his opening minutes. He's a new favourite of mine ;) (Interestingly, in 14 minutes, he had a +/- of +17. That's pretty good in a close game).
2. The first quarter was a bit of an arm wrestle. Neither side could miss early, then neither side could hit late. A solid team effort by our boys, and a great solo performance by New Zealand's Searles, saw the teams go in near level at quarter time.
3. New Zealand blew the game open with a 2 minute burst that saw them open up a 10 point lead midway through the 2nd. The team had no match for Zahra, before a timeout was called and a well deserved rocket was given to the players. The rocked worked, as the team went in only 1 point down at half time.
4. The Australian team had rotated their players well throughout the night, and the fresh legs started to tell in the third. The team opened up a 8 point lead at the final change, with no real player standing out so far. However, on the negative side, Degas was having a stinker, shooting 1-6 and having just the 1 assist.
5. Degas was told in no uncertain terms to pass, and not shoot. It worked. He was in everything early in the quarter, racking up assists, and passing for quite a few more missed shots and fouls. However, the team let the lead almost slip, before using their fresh legs again to close out the game.
Hard to give votes this week, with a really even performance!
Darby Walters medal
3. Vladimir Shishaev - Solid offensive game from Shishy. I love guards who can score in LI, and he was our leading scorer, scored efficiently, and got a couple of assists. Plus he fouled out his opponent.
2. Scott Schnieder - Raffle it, but Schnieder scored well, had no turnovers, and gave off a couple of assists. That gives him a slight edge over the other contenders.
1. Lionel Walker - Pretty much see above. Scored a bit. Assisted a bit. Did his job.
Leaderboard
8 - Leigh Reiffel
6 - Dylan Scoggins; Vladimir Shishaev
5 - Scott Schnieder
3 - Brent Degas; Darren Lonergan; Lionel Walker
1 - Jone Bogan
0 - Keith Anderson
Rudoplh Radford medal
I have no idea.
3. Vladimir Shishaev - Shishy clean sweeps the votes this week. Nothing he did defensively shows up on the stats sheet, but he smashed his opponent, who took a heap of shots and missed most of them. That gets him the full votes.
2. Keith Anderson - Only had limited minutes, but did a decent job defending both SF and PF, and cleaned up on the board, which was vital
1. Brent Degas - Spent time at PG, SG and SF, and did a good job defending at all three, at picked up a couple of steals as well, and grabbed some boards as well. Good enough for a vote.
Leaderboard
7. Vladimir Shishaev
5. Lionel Walker
4. Scott Schnieder
3. Darren Lonergan; Leigh Reiffel; Keith Anderson
2. Brent Degas
1. Dylan Scoggins
Jackson Mansfield medal leaderboard
Aaaaand we have a new leader! Interesting quirk - no two players are on the same number of votes.
13. Vladimir Shishaev
11. Leigh Reiffel
9. Scott Schnieder
8. Lionel Walker
7. Dylan Scoggins
6. Darren Lonergan
5. Brent Degas
3. Keith Anderson
1. Jone Bogan
Next week the real test begins. It will be tough, but I think we can get 2nd, which would be a good achievment (albeit one that probably puts us on a road to China in the semis)