The "heroes den": what better place to host the last match of this mandate, the last exhibition of the best U21 team of SA history?
Puerto Rico went in our court to look for a second victory, spending a mots to balance the number of very young players selected in the team (even an 18!). On my side, the match did not scare us. I decided to honour this wonderful team, you great managers, my wonderful staff, playing at best.
So, our most shining Look Inside + Man, MOTS to compensate the low TS after previous, unlucky icelandic MOTS, with the Trio Schartner-Kolane-Wagana on the field, and the only change between Wagana (back to PF) and Rabutla (as C) to match typical Puerto Rico starting five.
As mentioned, Puerto Rico decided to play with young players, but hard. We started with a shocking 0-8 before Rabutla dunk assisted by Wagana. We paired at 10, after 6'30 in Q1 of hard fighting in a true match. Chipako Mbangwa scored the first advantage 14-12, and Schartner scored the final 20-19 at the first buzzer. Match was balanced because tough Puerto Rico offensive rebounding, while we are attacking far better.
Q2 proceeded on the same way, although with some more momentum on our side. Wagana assisted Schartner to 31-27, and head to head first half closed 40-36, with satisfactory shooting and some missed rebounds.
At Q3 start, Wagana decided to sign his last game in U21: dunk, rebound, two-hand dunk, rebound, hook. 6-0. Then again the Trio, with Kolane and Schartner and Wagana again to boost South Africa in a 14-3 start that broke the match. Since then, showtime: the weak Puerto Rico defense was overwhelmed by our attack (we closed with 27 team assists and 46/80 shooting), till 2.25 to the end of Q3, when a standing ovation closed the history of our Trio in U21 jersey.
The gap raised to about 40 points, before being stabilized in the final minutes of the match. All roster on the bench played some minutes, 11 scored (only Mahabane missing, sorry). Final score was 98-68, a large victory, the third in this consolation (and fourth overall in consolation history!!!), against a team ranked #74 (as we were at the beginning of this mandate!).
The MVP of the last game of this season (friendly matches excluded) is, again, Juggie Wagana, who broke the match in two parts at the beginning of second half. I am proud of good performances of Schartner, Kolane and Mbangwa, and all the other team members.
With Algeria defeated 116-85, we are the second team of Africa, behind Ghana, sustained by a very favourable scheduling (but of course able to keep all the best out of it, great job indeed), and of course excluding Misr and Nigeria.
Now, all the 21 years old players will leave the roster. With them, few others "saved" by bottification. Roster will be rebuilt around new guys, and the few 20's in current roster. A separate thread will be open about it, the seed of next mandate (whoever will be the coach, you'll decide). Here, I will post again some notes about players that will be released. Another separate thread will be dedicated to this mandate analysis. Any question or comment will be welcome (there).
Last edited by GM-BlackMouse at 8/30/2010 2:55:41 PM