Ho chi Minh City Basketball team hoops down Cambodia

Three foreign based Cambodia player made their bow against Vietnam side.

The Cambodian National basketball team let a 12 points lead slip off to go down 74-77 to the Ho chi Minh City Basketball team in a Pre-SEA games Friendly Encounter on Friday afternoon.

The Game which is the first of two games organized by the National Olympic Committee of Cambodia as part of the Team Support for the 26th South East Asian Games to be held in Jarkata next month kicked of at around 5pm at the indoor hall of the national sports Complex.

Buoyed by the trio of their foreign based Players, Pek Mith, Sop Oeun and Bi Thach, Cambodia raised to a 6 points lead in the first quarter and by the third quarter were leading by 12 points before the visitors came from behind to take a 10 point lead going into the fourth Quarter. In the end, Cambodia fought back but the Vietnamese team ran away with a 3 point winning margin.

The three Foreign based Players were quite impressive with Sop Oeun, making a hat trick of 3 pointers to finish top scorer for the Cambodian Side.

" I am impressed with the boys, this is our first game together and they showed great character" says national team coach Austin Koledoye.

The Nigerian Born coach noted that his team only just came together for a short time especially the foreign players unlike the visitors who have been together for a long time. " Our team is just coming together, the Vietnamese team have been together for pretty long time so we will get better with time" he stated. " I am quite satisfied with the performance of My players, though the Vietnamese team were more physically fit, however with the foreign players arriving only 48 hours before the Game, I understand that they might still be suffering from jet lag" Coach Austin Enthused

The Second Game will be coming up on Saturday at the National Stadium after which the Cambodian Team will head for china to take part in an invitational Tourney.

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