Mountainasia Gives Ceni Hard Time, Hosts Prevail
Box Score
Ceni Stats Leaders
Pts: Ace Stargazer (22)
Rebs: Orion Darkstar (10)
Asts: Neil Halcyon (11)
PRat: Neil Halcyon (8.5)
Ceni was made to work in its first ever IBC outing - with Mountainasia, a fellow unranked team, giving the hosts a big scare in the first matchday of the International Basketball Champions. Despite a late fourth quarter surge, the hosts were able to move forward in the game, earning their first win in the sport. They next face second-seeded Saint Kanye (and highest-ranked second seed) on the second matchday in what should be a quite tough match for the hosts and debutants.| Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Q4 | Total | |
| Ceni | 18 | 23 | 27 | 17 | 85 |
| Mountainasia | 15 | 18 | 21 | 24 | 78 |
Ceni Stats Leaders
Pts: Ace Stargazer (22)
Rebs: Orion Darkstar (10)
Asts: Neil Halcyon (11)
PRat: Neil Halcyon (8.5)
The first quarter was fairly close, with only a three-point shot by Neil Halcyon enough to maintain Ceni's lead over the unranked team. Mountainasia, their players wearing jerseys without names on them (for some crazy reason) and a computer glitch meaning that one couldn't see the players' names all too well, mounted an aggressive game, with a great number of personal and technical fouls giving Ceni lots of free points off free throws.
That strategy seemed to work for them, though, as it produced results against a bit nervous Cenian defense, with manager Lauren Vox hoping that a switch from nervous center Benjamin Espinoza to the more experienced Orion Darkstar would help a bit on the defensive end. That it did, and the Cenian defense began to pick up a bit, as the offense sprung forward in the second quarter to extend Ceni's lead in the game to eight points.
Despite the excellent shooting performance of Ace Stargazer, who led scoring with twenty-two points, the unnamed players on the Mountainasia team mounted a capable defense, led by their captain, who started off with a zone defense to double team Stargazer and prevent him from scoring as much. Originally this did not have much effect as the Cenian team was able to simply keep moving forward with the offense using a classic form of the wheel offense to keep the ball rotating around.
Mountainasia thought it might regain the advantage in the third quarter of the game, using its height as an advantage, and they quickly built up a lead of sixteen points to ten by the first half of the third quarter. However, Ceni, despite their shortness, had the advantage in the wheel offense and their quickness was able to stymy Mountainasia in order to come back from the deficit and win the period, extending the lead.
Vox made the decision to rest key starters in the fourth half as point guard Neil Halcyon was replaced by Kiana Ke'Sandrhan. Although she played competently, she was no match for the best-rated player for Ceni on the court, who notched the most assists as well and was crucial for his positioning and three-point shots. However, Obran Camasau and Ashur El-Amin both did well, scoring six points apiece.
The defense in the third quarter seemed just good enough to stop Mountainasia from winning, as the unranked side decided to use their tallest players to further get the advantage on the Cenian team as they grabbed a seven-point lead in the fourth quarter to give them a better chance at making the game go forward, however the points gap was too large to surpass.
Ceni learned several things from the match. It had to run up the offense whenever it could. It had to be resolute at the defense. And it had to make substitutions with a clear eye for how things would go in the end. All of those lessons will be useful lessons when playing Saint Kanye as well as the other nations in Ceni''s group. There will be a lot of pressure on Ceni to perform well as the hosts, with the growing numbers of fans now clamoring to get a piece of the action and support their home team.
