Our final morning saw a trip to the famed Greenhills Shopping Centre – the mother of all flea markets in the heart of downtown Manila. Shouts from hawkers of ‘Sir! You buy bag!’ or ‘Sir! Buy here’ were interesting and novel for the first 20 minutes, but Michael Valenti’s gruff stares and retorts of ‘What?’ certainly matched the locals for bluntness!
The afternoon saw us head out to Francisville, a small suburb we had visited earlier on the trip, to play Fatima University – a large Catholic university that boasted overseas players and sharp-shooters.
With Danny Cook out with the flu, much of the scoring burden would fall to Conan Prince and Giles Creelman to try and replicate the irreplaceable presence that is Danny Cook. Danny has been the consummate professional on this trip, nightly racking up points, rebounds, steals and slam dunks in a no-nonsense fashion and winning hearts with his happy manner.
Without him we knew that the match would be hard. Fletcher Creelman was a strong defensive presence, blocking numerous shots from the local team and shooting well from long range. Andrew Stock continued to play the point position, shooting and distributing the ball with the aplomb of player who distinguished himself in Perth’s State Basketball League before relocating to Shanghai, China to teach their with his wife in an international school.
Fletcher Creelman ministered to the sizeable crowd at half-time, but spoke more directly to the opposition team about looking past the game of basketball to lasting happiness.
The second half saw the lead see-saw back and forth between both teams for much of the third and fourth quarter. With the Aussies dominant inside and scoring freely from post-play and big-men combinations, the Filipinos played their own brand of basketball, penetrating and swinging the ball multiple times to find the open three-point shot.
Some fine hustle plays from Steve Cressie on the defensive end and Conan Prince on the offensive rebounding front gave Sports Ambassadors the edge in the end, 76-72.
It was a fine way to end our basketball tour for 2012. A great opposition that pushed us to create perhaps our best basketball of the trip and a great time of sharing with the Fatima players after the match.
A detour on the way home to the Faith Academy condominiums and a swim in the pool to end the day gave all the players the opportunity to reflect on the match and the highlights of the trip.
A quick shower and a trip to the famous T.G.I.Friday restaurant marked the goodbye dinner for the players as they were to leave at 3am the next morning for their Singapore flight. Andrew Stock is remaining in Manila for an extended holiday before heading back to China.
For anyone interested in flight returns to Perth, the players will be coming into Perth :
TIGER FLIGHT 2716
Sat, 14 Jan 2012
Perth ( PER ) 9:05 PM
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3 comments:
Well done, everyone! Counting down the hours until you're home again.
Jen & David Cook
An excellent and very beneficial 2wks by all accounts. Brilliant work guys! Definitely interested in flight returns :) Can't wait! H&a
Sorry for the late post! Have a safe trip home. Sounds like you've had an exhausting, successful basketball trip.I've ordered an 'out of service' sign Tim, for the school toilet. Safe travels!
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