A great game to watch (Oostende vs. Antwerp)
Hi there everyone, after the Euroleague Final four, pretty much the majority of my season is over following major basketball events, at least so I thought till I came across an amazing game. Residing in Amsterdam, NL its seldom that I get to watch good quality basketball locally. Its unfortunate to an extent due to the lack of support the Dutch basketball federation (NBB), the Dutch basketball League (DBL) have. To me its a curious case of the chicken and the egg. Each year tons of talent from a small country (the tallest in western Europe by the way) through their own efforts make it to D2, D3 schools with support that is little. Before I get more side tracked, back to the real deal, I usually catch the odd German BBL game now and again, great level competiiton however thanks to Pascal Meurs, and his tweet below;
I ended up having a closer look at the Euromillions Basketball League and was amazingly surprised at the level of play, the fans and the overall atmosphere. Yeah, I signed up for a fanseat.com account straight away and I got to watching Oostende play against Antwerp…
It was a playoff game and to my amazement the pace and the possessional value of the plays that both sides were presenting were high quality let alone efficient.
Antwerp won the game by eight points but I would be remised to state that Oostende definitely gave them a run for their money!
The top players of the game for either side, while Hans Vanwijn was the top perfromer for Antwerp, Tonye Jekiri was the best player for Oostende.
Looking at the basic stats of the game:
Here is a short cut of Hans’ points against Oostende:
Hans was by far very effective not just creating opportunities but running an offense when needed. I do want to point out that he has a bit of an odd fluidity with his shot mechanics but it works for him and that is the critical bit. He managed to score all of his 18 points off 6 for 6 three point shooting in 24 minutes of play and wracked up a total of 6 rebounds and had 3 assists.
On the flip side, Tonye is the type of player I generally admire. The big that tries to dominate, play some old school ball and does not shy away from the challange.
Too bad that Oostende lost the game. Coach (Roel) Moers (a former Belgian pro ball player) definitely is a tactician that studies his opponent well from having watched the entire game. He also knows what he has in terms of talent and knows how to not just line them up but guide them to a “W”.
Above we see that he utilized a five man lineup for three minutes that managed to gain a 15 point advantage defensively and offensively.
Looking on the opposite end:
Coach (Dario) Gjergja, of Oostende tried to counter by playing more dominant inside out plays and sideline plays however when you play against a team such as Antwerp that got two added three pointers on much more effective three point shooting (12 out of 22) and out rebounded their opponent on the defensive end the outcome was a eight point difference.
I will definitely keep a closer eye out on this league till the end of this season. Its intriguing to see a few fresh faces and see some talent that can make the jump to Euroleague level teams.
All the best,
Ermay “Mike” Duran
Advance Pro Basketball
