National team vow to return

(Above) Ben Sim (L) of Soon Lee-Easyway goes for a layup against Edward Mendez of Babes
Boutique during Tuesday's game. (Top) National coach Kevin Reece
reacts. Pictures: BT/Maui Salazar

Yee Chun Leong
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN

Thursday, April 8, 2010

NATIONAL basketball coach Kevin Reece is adamant that his charges will bounce back in their next BBA Open Challenge Trophy game. Playing under the Soon Lee-Easyway banner, the national team were handed their first loss infront of a largely Filipino crowd at the Brunei Basketball Association (BBA) court in Batu Bersurat, going down 99-84 to Babes Boutique on Tuesday. Tuesday night's performance was in stark contrast to their two previous games, in which they dished out an 86-point
thumping to Al-Ssarah Eagles and a 120-point demolition of Ford.

"They (have) never seen a coach like me that will stay on top of each and
every play, good or bad. I will talk to them to try to make them think
about the entire game," said Reece, in an interview with The Brunei
Times, yesterday.

"This team is on a mission and with that we will have some setbacks but as a whole, we are a bunch of no-names that nobody gives a chance and we showed we can play with the best team in Brunei at the moment," added Reece.

"We are eager and hungry to prove to ourselves that we can and will play harder to win," continued the 49-year-old.

The Los Angeles native felt that it was his team's troubles with boxing out that led to easy second chance points and their subsequent demise.

"They know luck was on their side and many commented on our defensive efforts but we didn't play well enough down the stretch to win," added the American.

However, the offence was also stagnant, particularly during set plays.

"The fastbreak was there all night and when we did go into our set offence, our ball movement wasn't as crisp but we made some adjustments at halftime and played a 1-4 offensive set and managed to score a few baskets," said Reece. Read More...

Source: The Brunei Times