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JAKARTA, Indonesia—The opening night of the Southeast Asian
Basketball
Association Club Championships Friday served two purposes for the
Harbour Centre-Philippine Team.
As they sought to start the four-team tournament
on a positive note, the RP Nationals would also take the opportunity
to scout two clubs that are favored to take away the Philippines’
crown.
After the RP-Thailand game, Malaysia and
Indonesia—two teams that are expected to give the Filipinos some
anxious moments here— will be playing. And head coach Jorge
Gallent and his Harbour coaching staff, still looking to gain
significant knowledge about the opposition, will make sure they’ll
be at the sidelines with observant eyes.
“Getting to scout [Indonesia and Malaysia] is
going to be very important because we haven’t really seen [how
their imports] play,” Gallent said Friday noon just after a team
scrimmage. “So the schedule not only gives us a chance to jell as
a team, but to also be able to set the right strategy for the rest
of the tournament.”
Gallent said he and his coaching staff already
have key information about Indonesia, the team the Nationals are
playing at 6 p.m. (7 p.m., Manila time) today at the Britama Arena.
“At least we have tapes of Indonesia’s local
players,” he said. “We expect most of the plays they will run to
be the same because they don’t have a new coach. So those are the
things we will review.”
According to Gallent, Harbour team consultant
Junel Baculi is familiar with Indonesia’s plays, the ones set up
by the home team’s head coach Fictor Roring.
Roring gave Harbour-RP some fits in this
tournament last year when the Indonesians defeated the Filipinos in
the elims. Baculi, who was the country’s head coach in this event
last year, is familiar with how Team Indonesia plays and knows
“their individual players’ tendencies”.
The challenge for Gallent and co., though, is
finding out how strong Indonesia’s foreign reinforcement are.
The home team is fielding Alexander Hartman, a
22-year-old 6’4” American, and Jemino Kamal Sobers, a
23-year-old 6’8” Canadian.
According to an article published online by
Suara Karya Daily Thursday, the two flew here only as recent as two
weeks ago.
“They’ve seen the venue. They’ve seen the
local league. I hope we can win with these guys,” Roring said
earlier this week.
When asked whether he was worried about
Indonesia’s imports, Gallent said: “Just a little.”
“Being able to scout Indonesia is very
important. They are the toughest team out there. They have the
home-court in their favor so we have to be able to use every bit of
knowledge we can pick up to use to our advantage,” Gallent said.
“We will make adjustments based on what we
already know. But the thing is, we won’t adjust to how they play.
Let them cope with us,” he added.
Malaysia, Harbour-RP’s last assignment, will
feature Australian professional-league veteran Ben Knight and a
player from Cameroon.
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