Cantho Catfish changes positions with Ho Chi Minh City Wings

NDO - In the 36th round of VBA 2023, the away team Cantho Catfish put in a lot of determination to overcome the home team Ho Chi Minh City Wings with a score of 95-89.

The first ball fight between Cantho Catfish (white shirt) and Ho Chi Minh City Wings. (Photo: VBA)

In the third and final match between the two teams in the group stage of VBA 2023 this year, Ho Chi Minh City Wings and Cantho Catfish are both hungry for victory. The two teams are currently ranked 5th and 6th respectively and need points to avoid falling too far behind the Top 4.

This goal was realized by Cantho Catfish with an important personnel change. Specifically, the team nicknamed “Casa Catfish” said goodbye to DeAngelo Hamilton and brought in Joshua Keyes. The “newbie” of the Can Tho team is a star who won a “double” of titles, the best player in the final series (Finals MVP) and the championship at VBA 2020.

The home team Ho Chi Minh City Wings and the away team Cantho Catfish started the match with excitement. In just the first 5 minutes, every time the ball came to their hands, the shooters found a way to score. Despite the high tempo of the ball, both teams maintained accuracy in their shots and quickly established a balanced score of 12-12.

Joshua Keyes has the ball at a 0-degree angle. (Photo: VBA)

In the following minutes, 3 three-pointers from Michael Soy and Le Ngoc Tu helped Cantho Catfish rise to 22-14. This gap continued to be increased by Brachon Griffin to the first half score of 33-24, in favor of Cantho Catfish.

Entering the second half, Brachon Griffin's ball sense was still abundant. The speedy defender's explosive attacks and the efficiency of Nguyen Quang Huy helped Cantho Catfish achieve the biggest 13-point gap since the beginning of the game with a score of 47-34.

Ho Chi Minh City Wings, led by Jeremy Smith, continued to chase and wait for an opportunity to equalize. Coach Erik Olson and his team had a chance to relieve the pressure when less than a minute remained, Vincent Nguyen had a breakthrough dribble and scored an unbelievable goal.

However, the effort of the Vietnamese-Dutch shooter was immediately doused with cold water by Nguyen Hoang Tu with an accurate three-point shot, directly helping Cantho Catfish restore a safe distance of 55-44.

In the third quarter, when Jeremy Smith could no longer maintain his 100% shooting efficiency (10/10), the remaining shooters of Ho Chi Minh City Wings still found ways to reduce the gap by 10 points. On the Cantho Catfish side, Cantho Catfish's "rookie" Joshua Keyes gradually got into the rhythm through impressive shooting efficiency in many positions.

At the same time, every time Ho Chi Minh City Wings scored, Brachon Griffin quickly used his superior speed to counterattack quickly, in order to immediately regain the advantage. At the end of the pivotal match, both teams scored 20 points and Cantho Catfish continued to lead with a score of 75-64.

Brachon Griffin dribbles the ball at speed from a 0-degree angle. (Photo: VBA)

Entering the deciding period, in less than 2 minutes, Tran Van Trung had a three-pointer to help Ho Chi Minh City Wings reduce the gap to 6 points. After scoring, this player had an unfortunate situation of losing the ball, preventing the home team from advancing further. It was not until Yevgen Sakhniuk scored from solid shots near the basket that Ho Chi Minh City Wings shortened the gap to 80-85.

This fragile gap was maintained until more than 1 minute left in the match, Jeremy Smith suddenly broke his own record for the most points in a match (34 points) to tie the score for the home team at 89-92. However, this player's excellence could not help Ho Chi Minh City Wings tie.

Accordingly, Joshua Keyes demonstrated the mettle of a VBA champion when he overcame all psychological pressure to successfully execute 3/4 free throws, directly to seal the final victory for Cantho Catfish with a result of 95-89.

Brachon Griffin, the "speed machine" of Cantho Catfish, was the Player of the Game with 32 points and 8 assists. "Rookie" Joshua Keyes had a match in the VBA 2023 as expected with 29 points and 18 rebounds.

On a sad day for Ho Chi Minh City Wings, Jeremy Smith just set a new milestone with 38 points (the old record was 34 points in game 29). In this match, center Yevgen Sakhniuk missed 10 points on the free throw line (6/16 efficiency). If he had finished more accurately, the Ukrainian foreign player could have brought a different game to Ho Chi Minh City Wings.

After this match, Cantho Catfish and Ho Chi Minh City Wings switched positions. Specifically, Cantho Catfish rose to 5th place with a record of 3 wins and 7 losses (30% win rate), while Ho Chi Minh City Wings ranked 6th with 3 wins and 8 losses (27% win rate).

HUY AN/NHAN DAN NEWSPAPER

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