Oita Away games

Posted on January 16, 2009 6:09 AM

What a cold weekend in Oita!

That was by far the coldest gym I have ever seen a Basketball game played in, in my entire life and believe me I have seen a few games in csome cold cities.

The first game started out slow, very slow! At the 5:52 mark of the first period the score was Kings - 0, Oita - 8. Of course it being cold it took us some time to get going. At the end of the first period the score was Kings - 10, Oita - 14. We were able to get our offense rolling by the second period and we took a 37 - 26 lead going into the break. We exetnded our lead with good offensive balance and good defense to Kings - 63, Oita - 41 at the end of three periods.
We started the 4th period by subbing in several of our bench players and giving them the opportunity to get some valuable playing time which is very important to the success of our team as we get further into the long 52 game season. Everyone contributed and everyone scored and we closed out the game, Kings - 95, Oita - 61. Great game in the cold!

The second game started out little better as we held a 18 - 13 lead with 4:01 to go in the 1st period. We turned the ball over a few times in the period and closed out the period 24 - 21.
Much of the same in the second periodas we extended our lead to 46 - 39 at the break.
The 3rd period was not as good as got a little complacent and they closed to within 48 - 47 at the 7:40 mark using a 8 - 2 run and we did not attack the basket and did not take of the ball.
They were able to get good looks at the basket and knock down their shots as we did not get through the screens to contest those shots and they used a 19 - 13 run to take the lead ending the 3rd with Kings - 61, Oita - 66.
The 4th was kind of a see-saw battle to start the period up until the 4:54 mark in the period and that was when our Offense took over and put up 28 points to Oita's 10 and we closed out the game Kings 102, Oita - 86.
Chris had 12 points in the period and Naoto had 11. Naoto finished the game with 30 points and Chris had 20 points.
A lot of our points in the 4th came from the charity stripe as we knocked down free throws to help close it out.

Great Team work Kings!

Next up: Shiga Lakestars

See you at the games,

Coach