Highlights from March 17th Game

Break

If you all are wondering why I have not been posting anything on here it is because we had a long break between games. After our last game we had three full weeks before our next game. April 7th is when our next game is scheduled. It is a road game. Then we play a week later at home to finish out the regular season.

God bless you all.

Home win

After a big win on the road this weekend at Turow, we came home to play Znicz Jaroslaw on Tuesday, March 16. We played good defense from the start as we went into the halftime break up 41-20. The second half wasn't as pretty though as we turned the ball over and allowed Znicz to shoot their way back into the game. They gradually came back and with under a minute to go in the game we found our lead dwindle to just 3 points. We ended up holding on to the win with a final score of 72-68. Although we had too many turnovers, we did out-rebound our opponent 42-27. With that win our record stands at 21-3 with two games remaining in the regular season.

Win this weekend locking up 2nd place

We had a very important road game this past weekend on Saturday, March 13. We played Turow...a team in which we lost to during the Polish Cup tournament a few weeks ago in the same arena. If we were to win the game we would lock up 2nd place in the regular season in our league.

Another obstacle we had to face was playing the game without our leading scorer who was not playing because of illness. But we were determined from the start as we fought hard and went blow for blow with them ending the 1st quarter up by two: 24-22.

The game was much anticipated in the public eye as Turow is a very good team and they had already beaten us a few weeks back. Many rowdy Anwil fans actually made the 8 hour trip to support us which gave us a little extra adrenaline from time to time. The game was nationally televised as well. And the viewers received a good show as there was plenty of emotion and hard played basketball. The game remained close throughout the first half ending with Turow up by 2 at the break.

The third quarter was ours though as we outscored Turow 24:14 and took a solid lead. We held on to this lead with some timely three point baskets and defensive stops. The final score was 88:80...a very exciting win for our club.

As always we had very balanced scoring on our side. We had 6 players in double figures including 16, 16, 15, 11, 10, and 10. I personally had 15 points, 10 rebounds, and 5 steals.

As I said before, with this win we have now locked in second place in the regular season standing with a record of 20-3. Prokom has a record of 20-2 and we have yet to play them at home. We now have a home game Tuesday before the all-star weekend. After Tuesday's game we have a long break before our next game.

As a side note, the weather is nice here. It stays in the upper 30's and lower 40s most of the time. God bless you all!!

Highlights from our last home win (March 6, 2010)

Polish National Team

My coach here was just named the Polish National Team's coach. Congrats. We also have a couple players on our team who have played or who are still playing on the national team.

Another Win!

Anwil got another win this past weekend! We played Energa Czarni at home. The game began with us jumping out to an early 10 point lead as we were effective on offense and held them on D. Our point guard was getting to the rim and finishing well, and our big man also had good looks inside. We gave back the lead however as we neared the end of the first half down by 5 points. With time winding down I set a screen for our point guard and popped out to the wing. He hit me with a throw back pass and I made the 3 pointer to draw us within 2 going into halftime.

We were not happy with the way we gave back the lead so we were determined to come out in the second half and correct the score. It took a little while to regain the lead for good, but we shot the ball well lead by our other 4 man hitting 3-3 from behind the arc as we took back the lead by the end of the 3rd quarter by 7 points.

The lead was extended to double digits in the fourth to give us more cushion. It seemed that we had the game pretty much under control by midway through the fourth. There was a lot of scoring done by both teams in the 4th quarter (28 points scored by each) as we cruised in for the win: 96-89.

With that win our record stands at 19-3. Good for second place so far in the league. The first placed team, Prokom, has a record of 20-2. And Polpharma, with a record of 16-6 has the third place spot. My first game here was against Polpharma when we beat them by 17. Later this month we are scheduled to play Prokom at home. Prokom is also in the Euroleague. For those of you that don't know...here in Europe teams belong to their own leagues in their country (Our's is PLK...the top league in Poland). And sometimes the top team(s) from each of the major leagues in Europe also play in what is called the Euroleague. The Euroleague is known to be the best league in the world aside from the NBA. So there is good competition here.

I hope all of you back home in the Midwest have a great last couple weeks of winter! Stay warm! God bless you all.

Pics from last game

For more pictures visit our website at: http://www.wtkanwil.com.pl/ and click on 'Galerie'