Cambodia National Basketball Team takes on Ho Chi Minh City Basketball Team before Jetting to China in Pre Sea games warm up

The Cambodia national basketball team is set to take on the Ho chi Minch City Basketball Team in a two game pre Sea game warm up reveals National Team basketball Coach, Mr. Austin Koledoye. The National team Coach made this known last Friday after team training at the National Sports Complex. “ As the SEA games is drawing close, we are perfecting our strategies for the games and with this friendly, game, I will be able to see my players in a competitive game for the first time in a long time” the Nigerian born tactician says.

The Friendly game is first of two warm up Games organized by the national Olympic Committee of Cambodia under the team Support program for the SEA games preparation. The Ho chi minh city Basketball team 19-man delegation led by Ms Nga Do are set to arrive Phnom Penh this Thursday 20th October and take to the court on Friday 21st for the first of two games. The final game will be held on Saturday before the team returns to Vietnam.

The team Cambodia National Basketball team will have the compliment of three of their foreign legion expected to arrive this week and Coach Austin Koledoye relishes the opportunity to see the foreign players in action before the SEA games. “I have been following their progress all along thanks to technology, but this game will provide me the chance to see how they can blend with the other local players” the obviously elated coach noted.

The team is also set to leave for china on Sunday after the final game with their Vietnamese counterparts to take part in the China-Asean Invitational basketball Tournament to be held in Nanning Province under the Auspices of the National Olympic committee of Cambodia. Cambodia will join Six other nations within the ASEAN region and China in the mini tournament organized to foster friendship within the region and will run from 25th October to 30th October.

“The china trip is surely a big plus for the team” says Coach Austin. “Although it is coming so close to the end of our training program, we welcome the challenge of having to play against the Vietnamese team and then go on the china for the mini tournament, it will give us an idea of what to expect in the SEA games” he added.

The Cambodian team have been training for the past two years without taking part in any major competition following the cancellation of the basketball event in the last SEA games , thus this friendly Games is a welcome development as they step up preparation for the upcoming 26th SEA games in Jarkata, Indonesia.

PEK MITH LEADS FOREIGN LEGION HOME FOR SEA GAMES PREPARATION

The trios of Cambodian born foreign basketball players are expected to arrive Phnom Penh this week ahead of the SEA games. Leading the pack is Pek Mith 26, a former Lowell High School Red Raider who is Cambodian American will arrive on Tuesday 18th October along with compatriot Ouen Sopoeun 29 from Fresno, California. Both players will be joined by European players, Sweden's Thach Boroth from Malmo Sweden who will arrive on Wednesday 19th October. The other European based player Austria's Stefan Doll-Therro Sao of UBBC Giants Vorchdorf is expected to arrive on 2nd November hence unable to join the trio for the warm up games coming up this weekend against the Vietnamese team and a tournament in china next week.

Speaking to Lowellsun.com, the 6-foot-1 tall Pek Mith is grateful to basketball for keeping him out of the streets and back to school. "There are not that many Cambodians out there who play ball," Mith told Lowellsun.com “Basketball kept me in school and out of the gang life," Mith says.

Mith has been playing basketball since leaving Lowell High School and has been playing in several men's leagues and in travel teams that have taken him to basketball courts in Canada, Florida, Texas, California, and up and down the East Coast. Most recently he has been playing with the New York Top Guns, a Filipino travel team based in Queens, N.Y.

"I thought I was the tallest Asian until I started playing in these tournaments and saw these guys that are 6-foot-6 and 6-foot-7," he says, adding a friend he met through basketball played in the 2007 SEA games. Mith expressed some interest and the next thing he knew, the coach was calling.
This will be, Mith first visit to Cambodia and will he will be coming with his mother and grandmother hoping to visit the grave of his grandfather, who died last year.

"I'm glad my mom will be there to translate because I understand Khmer, but can't speak it," he says, adding he has been speaking nearly every day to the two European players, Sweden's Thach Boroth and Austria's Stefan Doll-Therro Sao, playing on the Cambodian team, to "establish a vibe with them. When we meet it will be like we are old friends." He told lowellsun.com
Mith is not concerned with the team not having the chemistry needed to win.
"If you are smart and know how to play ball, you'll have chemistry right away," he says, adding in the 2007 games Cambodia lost to the Philippines by 103 points. "We are not going to let that happen again; I will put Cambodia on my back."

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