IMU Cup 2004 Update:Basketball Semi-finals 1

Today,I just watched the team that beat us the other day, the Sem2 playing against the almost-made-it team,the current Sem4.What make this match so exciting?Both of the team are led by players who are in the class of their own.Raymond,one of my OOs during my orientation,leading his team of M1/03 against M2/04 led by Jin,whom I was one of the OOs.Oh mine,did my life just revolve around basketball? Jin,beat us the other day with an outstanding Jordan-like performance of 43 points against us.Thus today's matchup is very interesting.Star player playing against star player.The Sem4 led by Raymond started brightly,before Jin's team fought back to take the lead in the middle of first half.Jin wasn't shooting as well as he did the other day.Raymond?He had his fair share of misses too.The Sem4 seems to be playing the right defensive strategy by playing a 1-2-2 defense keeping the guards of Sem2 at bay.However,the inside players of M1/04 had quite a day collecting points in the absence of Jin's shooting form.That's a downside of the 1-2-2 zone formation. The Sem2?They defended with 2-3zonal defense,the most often used defense in basketball I think,can be compared to the 4-4-2 applied in soccer.Since they are playing with 2 guys out.Raymond at nearing 6 feet and being such a good dribbler had quite a good time collecting points.Towards the end of the first half,the Sem4 rallied to pull clear by six points leading into halftime. Second half started with a 3 points from Jin.After that,both the team fought hard to try to take the lead but the Sem4 inspired by Raymond,didn't let space of even an inch to them.They didn't want to surrender their lead.Going into the middle of the second half,with Jin starting to regain his form,the Sem4 applied the 1-2-2 man-zonal or the known "Box One" in basketball with WJ being assigned the task to keep Jin's fire down,while the other 4 form a box defending the inside zone.Jin had a tough time taking his shot and he didn't make his shot ala Jordan as what he did against us.Jin's contribution became quite limited as the game went on,throwing away possession and leading to a few fast breaks from the Sem4.Raymond was really in inspiring form,cutting through the defense,making the shots and plays.The Sem2s just couldn't keep Raymond under control.There was only 3 minutes left on the clock when the Sem4s held a 12 points lead.Jin tried to rally his team back into contention.On a normal day,he might make it.But Raymond was unforgiving,making steals and another few fast break keeps the game out of reach for the Sem2s.Sem4s?They are in the finals. A few thing I want to say about Raymond and why I want him to win.He is an outstanding basketball player in his batch or probably even the whole university.As most competitions are played between batches,his batch,lacking dedicated basketball players always didn't make it far in the inter-batch basketball competition.I can see his elation when the game ended.He has finally reached the finals after maybe four semesters of trying?His teamates nevertheless did a great job in helping him.He had cramps too many a time in trying to reach the final with his batch.Now he finally he made it.Congrats nevertheless. To Raymond,when I told you "See you in the final," besides me wanting to be in the final,I also want you to be in the final.You kept your words by bringing your team into the final and let's see if I can keep mine in the upcoming semis against the overwhelming favourite,the Giants of M2/02.We will meet next Monday on the court,I hope.They are beaten before and history does repeat....To the Finals....