Satria Muda: Home is where the Hart is
By Jan Lin and Erwin Wong/Red Hoops
Like a true Leo, Alexander Hartman’s (Satria Muda #8) lion heart was evident in Singapore where he bagged 30 points, including 4 treys from 8 attempts. (Photo 1 © Vanessa Lim/Red Sports)
With less than 24 hours to the tip off of the inaugural ASEAN Basketball League Finals series between the Philippine Patriots and Satria Muda in Manila, the visitors are not as concerned about playing away from home than they are about playing without heart.
With all the hype surrounding home court advantage, many often forget that the away disadvantage can be minimised and turned into an advantage, just as Satria Muda did in Singapore when an unusually confident Alex Hartman sparked his team off to unleash a braveheart performance.
“I was feeling confident in the first half. I just felt that we need to send a message,” said Hartman whose energy was infectious. “We need to play like we did in Jakarta. If we did right from the jump they would either fall or it would be a close game and it was a close game.”
Like a true Leo, Hartman’s lion heart and appetite was evident in Singapore where he nailed 30 points, including four treys from eight attempts.
The 24-year-old said: “We weren’t confident the last two times we played here (Singapore), we didn’t have a good shooting night, I didn’t have a good shooting night, Nakiea got emotionally out of the last game, we had a lot of turnovers, we just didn’t play team basketball. We went back to Jakarta and I think that was a total boost in everyone’s game and we thought if we play like that we could beat Slingers in Singapore.”
“I’m just happy that in the first half I could do my job and in the second half, Nakiea could do his,” continued Hartman, who had 21 points to his name by the half-time buzzer while fellow import Nakiea Miller managed only two.
Hartman, together with Amin Prihantono, the team’s captain in the domestic league, contributed to the bulk of the scoring before another local-import duo of Miller and ‘Super’ Mario Wuysang stepped up in the second half. Rony Gunawan also made his presence felt in the second half and was formidable in his defense in the crucial final period.
“We really focused on our defence coming into the series,” Wuysang let out. “We didn’t do good in Game 1, but really tightened up in Game 2 and in this last game, so we really focused on our defence.”
Hartman added: “At the beginning we didn’t play that good in defense, we turned it around but the thing is we had other people stepping up. We had Amin stepped up big time in the first half, Mario stepped up in the second half and had a solid game. We just had a lot of people who played with confidence.”
Both Hartman and Wuysang acknowledged that the army of Satria Muda’s fans, who have traveled to Singapore for the game, fueled the team’s display, minimising the away disadvantage.
When asked about the vociferous support from their fans, Wuysang said: “We were surprised about the Indonesian supporters today. We weren’t ready for that. We didn’t expect that. It was good to see it, and it really helped us.”
“The fans were amazing, I felt like Jakarta really came out to support us, we knew they were coming out to support us,” Hartman chipped in. “When you know a lot of people are backing you, you try a little harder and that’s why a lot of people were stepping up and were more confident because a lot of people were backing them up.”
Wuysang further added: “It’s so tough to win here (Singapore). We got beat pretty bad in the first game. And there was a little bit of online trash talking, so we took it kind of personal. It made it a little more personal to us. It definitely was a motivation, and it’s just amazing we could win here.”
Satria Muda’s head coach Fictor Roring also praised Wuysang and Miller’s outstanding contribution in the last quarter and gave special credit to the locals for stepping up when Nakiea Miller lost his cool in the first half after being hurt by Slinger Al Vergara.
“This is what I call team work, the others stepping up so that Nakiea could calm down. When the imports are not well, the locals have to step up and play,” the Indonesian coach shared.
“The Slingers is a great team, they have a great coach who did a great job with them but experience made the difference,” Roring said. “My team is used to this kind of situation, being down in the first game in the series and coming back to win the series just like we did in our IBL (Indonesia Basketball League) last year. It was exactly the same situation.”
“In terms of imports, I think Nakiea and Alex are at the same level with Jeffers and LeBlanc. In this kind of (playoff) situations, the tactics, the strategies are not so important. What is important is playing with the heart,” coach Roring added.
Reinforcing these sentiments, Hartman said: “It was tight going into the fourth quarter and when that happens, the last 10 minutes aren’t about the players, the coaching, it’s about who has the best heart, the most heart, who can get through to the hoops and make the free throws.”
Coach Roring would know best. The Indonesian coach had led Satria Muda to a famous victory over Philippine’s Harbour Center at the 2008 SEABA Champions Club final, ending Philippine’s 10-year domination in the regional club competition.
“So we have a big chance against Patriots though we lost to them three times in the regular season but, in this kind of (finals) situation, it is the heart. Just as when we lost the home court advantage to Slingers we know it will be difficult and we lost by a big margin in the first game but, this is the playoffs, it’s different,” reiterated coach Roring.
Satria Muda have walked the talk in their semi-final playoff series against a Slingers team who had the second best home record during the regular season (6-2). While the Patriots may have fumbled twice in Singapore, no team has yet to beat them at home, but Satria Muda will be playing their hearts out in Manila to show that with that, home advantage is nothing.
This mouth-watering ABL finals series will take place at Manila’s Ynares Sports Arena at 6pm (UTC/GMT +8) tomorrow. Entrance is free.
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Nakiea Miller (Satria Muda #43) ultimately contributed 22 points to his team’s assault in Singapore though he scored only two in the first half. (Photo 2 © Vanessa Lim/Red Sports)
Slingers’ most complete local player Hong Wei Jian (Slingers #10) had a sharp-shooting night with 17 points, 2 treys and 2 steals, but Rony Gunawan’s persistent defense in the final period succeeded in limiting the hosts’ offense. (Photo 3 © Vanessa Lim/Red Sports)
Mario Wuysang (Satria Muda #18) said: “It’s so tough to win here [in Singapore]. We got beat pretty bad in the first game. And there was a little bit of online trash talking, so we took it kind of personal. It made it a little more personal to us. It definitely was a motivation, and it’s just amazing we could win here.” (Photo 4 © Les Tan/Red Sports)
Slinger Desmond Oh defending Welyanson Situmorang (Satria Muda #14). Situmorang was a key figure in the second playoff game in Jakarta but he could not find the basket in Singapore. (Photo 5 © Les Tan/Red Sports)
An imported hug – Miller hugs Hartman after the final buzzer. (Photo 6 © Les Tan/Red Sports)
The Satria Muda team celebrates in the middle of the court. (Photo 7 © Les Tan/Red Sports)
The two Satria Muda heroes who stepped up for the team in Singapore: Mario Wuysang (right) and Alex Hartman. (Photo 8 © Les Tan/Red Sports)
Backed by their deeply passionate fans, the Satria Muda bench raised their hands to signal victory. (Photo 9 © Vanessa Lim/Red Sports)
“GO SATRIA!” Satria Muda fans traveled from Indonesia to Singapore for the big game. Hartman said: “When you know a lot of people are backing you, you try a little harder and that’s why a lot of people were stepping up and were more confident because a lot of people were backing them up.” (Photo 10 © Vanessa Lim/Red Sports)
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I would still say that the key in this series are the locals from both teams. The imports are certainly expected to do their share, but it’s the locals that would make their imports job better.
@Irangels:Yup!agreed to that..c”,)
Heart not tactics? So…i guess SMB will not call a time-out since they will no be focusing on tactics…let them play with all their heart and when they return back to Jakarta…i think they will be exhausted and will have heart failures..
The strong SMB team had no skills to beat the weak Patriots.
hartman proved to be no match to freeman on their first meeting letting him score 39 points makes it easy to see the difference between the 2 import, while hartman can score in bulk he always forgot his defensive assignment, freeman proved he is the more all around player.. smb needs to attack the basket more and not settle for a low percentage shot, in a game where patriots grab twice as much rebound you need to fish for some fouls while creating shots putting the defenders on foul trouble early on and relax on their interior defense making it easy for hartman and miller to score inside the paint.. i also notice how wuysang seems to miss on a lot of open teammates, forcing his shots and at 1 point shooting a 3 on transition when there is no rebounder and his teamates is still on the other side of the court.. faisal has a better job creating shots for his teammates.. theres a lot to talk about in the smb camp but nevertheless its a good clean game, hope smb can bounce back.
hhmmm come to thnk of it Phil PBL/Collegiate players with the imports
vs. Indo best ….not bad
Just by looking at the scores I’d agree that the Locals dozed off. If they leave freeman to score they should have been tight on defense and rebounds and if they think that 1 on 1 works for this I don’t think so besides zoning is allowed not sure what went wrong with the patriots tactic. Coach Alas probably meant ‘energy’ and they were too ‘over confident’ since they beat the club for at least 3 times. Hope they tighten defense. As for the opposing team they need to step up their defense and improve their shooting accuracy which may spell victory or doom for the Pats.
That is the weakness of patriots, thats why KL dragons play zone d all the times to patriots,,good freeman able to convert both perimiter and rainbow area, else they will doom.
The problem with playing zone defense is that there are tendencies to lose defensive assignments, which leads to offensive rebounds to the opposing teams (especially the long ones). A good example was in game one of the finals. The Patriots just out rebounded Satria Muda on the offensive end — 2-to-1 if I am not mistaken. Most of those are from missed three point attempts. That means more chances for the Patriots to score.
The primary concern is still on the Patriots locals. That is because Satria Muda can let Freeman do his usual scoring, but let the other players fail to get their numbers. In short, let Freeman score 40, but limit the numbers of Dixon, Santa Maria, Wainwright, etc.
An example of this ploy is when Team Philippines played against the Fadi El Khatib led Sporting Al Riyadi in the recently concluded Dubai International. El Khatib scored 40 points in the game, but he didn’t get much contribution from his teammates thus yielding the game for Team Philippines.
It sounds radical or crazy, but this type of strategy has been done for ages and still very effective.
I am also expecting to see certain changes in defense from both ends. Possibly having someone else guard Gabe Freeman from Satri Muda, and the Patriots would Possibly have someone other than Freeman to guard Alex Hartman.
As observed in game one, Hartman had to work extra hard in defense and still got overwhelmed by Freeman, which affected his performance in the offensive end. On the other hand, Freeman got two quick fouls against Hartman in the first quarter. Something the Patriots cannot afford to happen anew. If someone else guard either one of these imports other than themselves, it will somehow conserve some sort of energy to both Hartman and Freeman on defense, which they both need in the 4th quarter where both players are expected to defend against each other again.
At any rate, this is going to be an exciting game 2 at The Arena in San Juan on Wednesday. As always, live streaming is available for free at http://www.fibatv.com
Enjoy!
Ybanez,alcaraz,coronel need to contibute atleast 5pts each.
Alex Hartman, can play in PBA as import
so far so good but there are no PBA coaches that are interested in this player {Hartman} because the Fiesta conference is a bit softer than the All-Filipino Cup but has more nastier plays and nastier strategies. PBA teams needed imports who can deliver and withstand defenders with the likes of ARBOLEDA and CRISANO and many more out there. FREEMAN and DIXON survived that conference so I do not know for HARTMAN but If he survives GACO and WAINWRIGHT then I can expect him to weather the PBA
Is this arboleda and crisano are the products of pba?
yes, they are few of the many enforcers the PBA has in store.
recap: Arboleda, De Ocampo and Se are the ones responsible for the nightmares the slingers have when their imports Sandrin and company experienced near-fatal injuries due to this trio.
They’re pretty good if you ask their fans hehehe
Crisano on the other hand causes imports to complain to the refs due to his physicality, more intense than Gaco.
Near fatal injuries!
Crisano is a boxer?
what about recent dubai invitation yesterday tigers and air 21?