At dawn, dreams vanish. This is just the dawn of the growing South Africa.
After two losses on the buzzer, we met Nigeria for the first time, for the most important match of this mandate - at least, so far.
All you managers did a very good job in preparing players to this match. In most of cases training was performed as requested, and shape was generally good, apart of formerly injured Sehularo. Looking at teams tendencies (thank you Lentigos for your great job!), it was clear that fouls were likely a decisive factor, and R&G was Nigeria's primary option.
The key decision was about SF. I decided to spot Magubane instead of Kolane, to ensure deeper chart and consequently minimize fouls effect, attacking then with reliable Look Inside. The man defense was obvious consequence, to avoid defensive mismatch against our SF. I decided to not use Sehularo (shape), Teka and Issa (skills), and to exclude Grumede (useless in this arrangement), Collombon (same), and Neimand (he will need much good training to wear South Africa jersey again).
As in previous matches, it was not a showtime, but a match for brave hearts. Good start by Nigeria with three pointers, than solid defense as we wanted to have, with high pressure on circulation and, for the first time in this season in relevant matches, a good control of rebounds. A good Schartner accelerated giving our first advantage, then gap grew up to 8 points in first quarter, 9 in the second. Nigeria tall men experienced a lot of problems in controlling our internal attack, although the high perimetral pressure forced us to unwelcomed (missed) three pointers. Burr played a great first half, while the dominant Akiga was having a nightmare. Magubane defended quite well on Ekuru shooting, but paied it back in awful shooting. At the end of H1, we trailed by 7 with 4 foils by Akiga and Ekuru!
In second half, we slowly slipped back. Defense left just 19 points to Nigeria, but attack scored only 14, leaving 2 points lead at the end of Q3. However, Akiga was fouled out, while Ekuru committed his fifth! Unfortunately, in the most important match of the season, Juggie Wagana, our top player, had his worst performance, leaving us without our primary shooting option. When the impressive Will Burr was fouled out the match turned down. We took too many bad shots, while Nigeria scored regularly. Magubane closed 3/15, adding 0/8 at FT's
Wagana reached his minimum at 10 points, while Schartner tried to keep the match on the right way outscoring his opponent Bongo and scoring 15 points on 13 attempts. We entered last minute with usual head to head, but with the feeling that game momentum was unfavourable. So, while Ekuru scored 5, we missed all throws and gap expanded.
Final score was 91-83, the largest loss against Nigeria in three matches. Our MVP was undoubtedly
Will Burr, 8/15 26 points adding 19 rebounds. His best game in this jersey! Jorg Schartner definitely won the match against Bongo, giving solid playmaking, great defense, some good scoring, and just two fouls. Wagana grabbed 19 rebounds, but I expected at least 20 points from him, doubling his actual score.
We had 45% on two pointers, but 1/16 3pt and an horrible 20/37 (54%!) at FT's line. We well controlled rebounds (58-54). My regret is for not having been able to foul out Ekuru for the whole Q4, but probably it would not have been enough.
In the other semifinal, the proud Ghana outscored Misr in Q1, closing Q2 with just 3 points gap. In second half Misr shifted to next gear, and the match was over. Misr is just one step to a perfect season.
I will separately post my evaluation for this season, and my plan for next one.
Let me close this post (thread?) with the pride for having reached semifinals against former champions, and playing it head to head till the end.