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Greenville SC - LET THE GAMES BEGIN!!

Coaches Corner - Game 1

Tonight we played St. Matthius Lutheran, located in Easley Sth Carolina. The first game of the tour is always a rough one and as I expected we were very up and down in terms of our performance and consistency. Naturally having only been in the U.S. for 2 days we were always going to be better for the run and moving forward our performances can only improve. St. Matthius were quite small and having played themselves the night before were always likely to be a little sluggish from the beginning. With two teams somewhat fatigued for different reasons the result was always going to be a bit of a raffle!! We started quite well and the game was close throughout. Apologies for a lack of stats but we'll attempt to rectify for our next games. The contest was close although somewhat patchy, in terms of the natural flow of the game. The first half was certainly nothing special in terms of highlights but both Charles So and Murray Hooper had provided some nice moves while Andrew Grainger was competing well against a much bigger opponent. Half time scores were Rowville 27 to St. Matthius 26. The game continued to go back and forth, with the home team only in the contest due to decision making errors from us, which we will address over the next few days. In the 4th term we broke out to a 9 point margin and were still 7 up with 3.00 mins to play. Nathaniel Lawerence had played well generally and had hit some nice perimeter shots to help assist us to the lead. The last 3 minutes however, were a little frustrating given we had the lead and we tended to rush rather than just take our time. Given they play with no shot clock here we were probably caught out taking quick shots, given our kids play with a 24 second shot clock. With experience we'll learn to protect a lead much more easily so that will be one big lesson from tonight. We tightened up considerably in the final 2 minutes and the inability to score meant that our opponents tied the game with free throws with 3.4 seconds on the regulation game clock. After a quick timeout to discuss tactics we were able to get a great look at the basket, after successfully moving the ball from one end of the court to the other, before passing up a 6 foot shot. We'll learn, next time the shot will be taken!! Game then was tied 55-55 all - let's go to overtime baby!!! In the overtime we tended to hit the wall a bit and fell behind by 7 points but fought back to 2 points down with less than a minute on the clock. We had several opportunities to create a scoring option but playing catch-up got the better of us and we couldn't quite get over the hump and lost 68 - 66!! In hindsight had we made the majority of our free throws, finished off on a number of shots within 6 feet and made some better decisions down the track in regulation we would have walked away with a good win. All the boys got to play and we played hard. We now focus on execution and decision making. Over the next few days we'll include photos but tonight I've tried to include some of the video of the game. Hopefully it works and you can enjoy some of the vision of the game.

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Hopefully you have enjoyed this little snapshot from tonight's game. I will endeavour to upload some photos and more video footage for you to enjoy!!

GAME MVP: Charles So

Other notable mentions: Andrew Grainger, Nathaniel Lawerence, Murray Hooper & Lachlan Parker

Tomorrow we get to participate in the Anderson, South Carolina Christmas Parade!!! More photos and maybe some video to come!!