PJB vs. Virunga

            This weekend we (PJB) were slated to play a friendly against the highy touted Virunga NBA (NBA is the team name J) team. The match was scheduled for Saturday at 3 PM, but from the time I woke up the clouds loomed it rained most of the afternoon. There was a slight pause in the rain though, so we began the game at 4 PM. The game began great for us. We jumped to a 10-0 lead (not bragging but 8 of those 10 points were scored by yours truly). It was a very fun first quarter where our starters really showed their dominance. The coaches went to the bench and at the end of the first we led 19-16. At the quarter break it began to drizzle a little bit. The bench stayed in the game the whole second quarter and they didn’t fair so well.  At half time we were down about 8 points. The coaches decided to re-insert the starters to begin the second half, but the rain picked up from a drizzle to a steady downpour, and we played about 2 minutes before the game had to be called. We were down 34-22 when the game was called.

            So the game was reschedule to the following morning; a tip-time of 8 AM Sunday morning. Starting at 7 was a PJB girls (fille elite) game that I had to coach at so it was an early morning Sunday morning. The girls game was the PJB elite team against a group of the best youth girls in Goma, who are part of PJB but play for other club teams. It was a fun game, we got killed, but that is because the other team was like an all-star team. Its always fun though coaching girls. The girls here are also very motivated which makes it even more fun.

            Out game began at about 8:45, which is Congolese 8 AM. It was a slow start for us as it took us about 8 offensive possessions to score a basket. It was not a bad start though because we began the tip with great defensive intensity and they only scored 3 points before our first basket. Even though our start was slow offensively, it was a great start for the game because it really set the stage for our defense the whole game. We benefited by having our whole team there, which consisted of two new grown men players who are very big and aggressive. Slowly our offense got into the groove and our defense continued giving Virunga problems scoring. By the end of the first quarter we were up about 10 points and we never looked back from there.

            Our attack consisted of a strong fast break, but also good penetration by our guards. By half-time we were up by over 20 points. I actually acted only as a player during this game because one of our players (and PJB founder), Dario, was suffering from an ankle injury, and he acted as a coach. I can never play basketball as just a player anymore though, so I had a lot of things for the second half to tell the guys, but Dario and Bienfait, the other coach, said everything I had in mine. We must still treat the game as a game and not a joke, even though our lead was great. They also said that we should practice getting the ball inside. This is a skill not mastered yet by any Congolese. They don’t really understand getting the ball inside.

            So to start the second half I purposefully made a conscious effort to get the ball inside. On problem was that the big men weren’t used to getting fed, so they played on their heels. It is important that big men gobble up their passes with a strong jump stop. I actually got a few buckets off of the post feed, but it didn’t seem that many of the other guys understood how to get the ball inside. I don’t know why but they love to lob the ball to the inside, which usually gets stolen. So This is one thing that we will be working on a lot of, entering the ball into the post.

            But the rest of the game just got out of hand in our favor. We continued great defense and allowing only one shot each possession with our rebounding, but we also scored everytime down the floor. By halfway through the fourth we were up by 37 points and began entering the victory cigars into the game. Funny thing is, even the 12th man on the bench scored and actually played pretty well. It was great to have  agame like this to show our dominance, but also give some confidence to our bench. We ended up winning the game by about 27 points (sorry I don’t have an exact figure, I forgot to write it down, but this is also because I was playing and not coaching). It was a great win for us to prove to the other teams of Goma that PJB is no joke, and that we will be ready to come play once the season rolls around.