Our opening game was against UIAM. It was also the 1st game of our group which meant neither team had seen the other play yet.
UIAM is always unpredictable in terms of their strength due to their high numberof international students.
They had a really good center, not very big sized, but could really jump, with incredible "hang time", great rebounding and very steady / good shooting (played last year too).
They also had a few other African players, really muscular & tall and one middle eastern player who looked like Jason Kapono (fortunately he didn't play anywhere near to Jason Kapono's abilities!). They also had an African PG (the center's brother), short, good court sense. really good at finding / passing to his brother but very poor outside shooting.
At the start of the game they surprised us with a very aggressive 3 quarter court man-to-man defense.We had to try 3 different man offense - going from Set 1A, to Set 4 to Set 1B (blocker / mover) - in the 1st 5 minutes before we settled down on offense. During that time we had 9 turnovers and only scored 2 points to trail 2-6.
The 1st quarter became a low scoring defensive battle - a real challenge to our vaunted defense. Our defense rose to the challenge and held them scoreless the rest of the quarter.
We still had a tough time scoring (making only 2 more shots from the field) but UIAM could not maintain their defensive mental focus and started to commit fouls (6 fouls - sending our players to the foul line 4 times where we were 6 for 8). And that was the difference in the quarter. 1st quarter ended with us up 12-6.
From then on. UIAM did not have the fitness to maintain their defensive intensity (their starting 5 played extended minutes with 1 or 2 bench players playing short minutes only) though they still played man to man. Their defensive pressure was no longer there (allowing us to score 6 basket from the field) and continued to foul us (7 team fouls) allowing to score another 7 points from the FT line.
On the other hand we rotated our usual 5 in 5 out throughout the 1st half and maintained our defensive intensity. By half time we led by 15 points (31-16).
In the 3rd we told our players to expect UIAM to make a push (after they rested at half time) and that if we could just match UIAM in the 3rd, we would be able to pull away in the 4th.
We started our 2nd unit in that 3rd quarter and matched them point for point. After 3 quarters we still led by 13 points.
Sure enough in the 4th quarter UIAM could no longer stay with us and we blew the game open.
FINAL SCORE : UM win 63-37.
A team effort overall. Chuan had a poor game (4 points 3 rebounds). In the past whenever Chuan had a poor game offensively we would lose. But this year we not only won, we won in dominant manner thanks to our defense and other players stepping up.
Phang was top scorer with 13 points, many created by himself (crucial baskets at critical times). Chen Wee had a strong game with 11 points 14 rebounds for a double double. Most importantly Chen Wee played excellent defense against UIAM's center, blocking him out of rebounds and keeping his points limited. When Chen Wee went out, our 1st year 2nd unit center, Chee Ching continued excellent, aggressive defense against UIAM's center. He was so frustrated he punched Chee Ching in the mouth (and the referee didn't see the punch!) openning a cut on the inside of Chee Ching's mouth. Fortunately the injury was not too serious and Chee Ching did not have to miss any games.
But the surprise player was Kok Way, another 1st year player (shooting guard) who came off the bench to play with the 1st unit. He scored 11 points, mostly from medium / long range but with a high shooting percentage (57%).
After this 1st game, we had a 2 day rest before our next game against the home team, UMS.
Next game update : UM v UMS.
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