South Africa vs HK: our last opportunity to delete our "zero" in "won" cell in World Cup tournaments. It was the opportunity to spend some attitude, while HK had problems due to its recent MOTS against Italy. I am proud of this result!
Before the match, I decided a little revolution. Our good talent Lefa Kadzamira is out of the team: his training program is currently not sustainable (more than 100' per week + bad skill training). I added Henrick Adam, who was already close to enter into Guards group, and Laurent Barnard, a good 20 years old player with good chances to be our Wagana next season.
HK tendencies, conditions, and roster made us confident about an outside attack, so a 3-2 zone was a need to limit their fighters, while rebounds was expected to be our sweet spot because of TS. A motion looked like our best option, considering the bad shape of Wagana and other tall men far from perfection.
HK took the leadership in Q1, counterattacked by a positive Kolane, who gave us our first advantage @7.24. A 6-0 partial brought to 7-12, but Adam and Barnard shook the match, bringing back to balance and leadership again 16-14. With some excess in fouling (a misunderstanding of "killer instinct" concept by Mtolo!?), we closed Q1 trailing by 2, 21-23.
In Q2 HK got two, but finally the so far inconsistent Wagana tied by scoring 2 FT's. Kolane scored 3, HK reacted, and at 50 we were 30-30. The good news were about dominating rebounding, very relevant in a low score match. Adam and Barnard again, with good assistance by Schartner, pushed SA ahead by 4. First half closed with SA leading by three 40-37.
Schartner breaked the game at the beginning of Q3. HK reacted till to 47-47, Kolane tried again but we were 51-51 @4'. Three by Machungo, then Adam again (what a match!), then Mbangwa close to the buzzer, with South Africa entering last 12' leading by 1, 62-61.
It was then Machungo with the typical double (assist+score, after Schartner, Barnard, Kolane), before Wagana show. Our Center grabbed an OR giving us a maximum gap of 8, then we started a point by point fight, were rebounding had a key role. A FT by Schartner set the score 90-80, before controlling last minute.
This time, we didn't fail "by few points". We won.
In this historical moment, I think that MVP should be assigned to two players: Dingane Kolane and Juggie Wagana respectively outscored and dominated at rebounding, being our pillars for this victory. I much much appreciated Barnard and Adam, found good contributions by Mbangwa, Machungo and Schartner.
Let me know take a moment's rest, after having changed something little in SA history.
By next days, we will start consolation tournament. We won 1 match out of 8 two seasons ago, and 0/8 in the first edition. Gaining playoffs is more than a dream (you probably should have 5-3 record!), but let's see our calendar first. I can promise you will be proud of this team, of your players, of our players.