Yesterday we said goodbye to the region of Hong Kong and hello to our first day in The People’s Republic of China. We boarded a train at 9:30 am and traveled through multiple cities in the Hong Kong region before crossing into China. As we crossed into China we were able to see the barbed wire fence and guards patrolling the border as we passed by. The train took us to the city of Dongguan, located in Southern China. After passing through customs we met our tour guide, hopped on another bus and headed to pregame meal. Dongguan seemed even hotter than Hong Kong when we stepped off the bus, but we were too excited to finally play a Chinese team that we didn’t seem to notice.
Chris Anderson scored 12 points in Augustana’s win against the Dongguan Snow Wolves.
Our pregame meal was a buffet style service in a five-star hotel in downtown Dongguan. We ate from a selection of sushi, tuna, salmon, octopus, barbecued crab, duck, goose, vegetables and more. Not your typical pregame meal but we were happy to try everything they had to offer. Once the meal was done it was an hour trip by bus to get our first taste of Chinese professional basketball competition. The team we matched up against was the Dongguan Snow Wolves of the NBDL (National Basketball Developmental League), essentially a feeder system for the CBA (Chinese Basketball Association). The game was located in their gym which was attached to a very nice hotel in the downtown.
The game was very fast paced and it was good to play against an organized team for the first time since last season. Something that we had to get used to quickly was the ambiguity of the calls. Many times the official would blow his whistle for a call and we would not understand why, but it was a good learning lesson to play through the adversity of the situation and adjust to whatever was happening. There was no doubt that our level of energy throughout the game was very high and it was a balanced team effort for a pretty comfortable win in the end.
After the game it was back on the bus for a two hour ride into the Guangzhou, a city of 11 million people. This region is often referred to as the “factory of the world” because it is responsible for a large portion of production of goods that get shipped to all corners of the globe. This was very evident as we drove through because we could see a lot of farmers as well as many factories. Dr. Moline described this place as the “engine that drives China’s world development.” It was definitely eye opening to see a place that is so important to the productivity of the world, but is just an afterthought in most people’s minds.
In Guangzhou we settled into Landmark Hotel, in downtown Guangzhou. A massive thunderstorm prevented us from going out to see the city at night, so we were resigned to the hotel until the morning.
A 10:00 flight to Wuhan waits this morning. We will be there for three days of sightseeing as well as another game.
– Kyle Nelson
The game story follows:
DONGGUAN, China – In the first official game of the 2010 “China Tour”, the Augustana Vikings pulled off an impressive 82-66 victory over the Dongguan Snow Wolves. The Snow Wolves are an NDBL (National Developmental Basketball League) in the Chinese professional system. Three years ago Augustana defeated a 17-under team from the same “club.” This time around, however, the Snow Wolves were beefed up a bit and employed a roster stocked with college-age players.
As has been the Viking trademark since Grey Giovanine took over as head coach prior to the 1999-00 season, balanced scoring was the answer in today’s victory. Senior Kyle Nelson (Deerfield HS, Deerfield, Ill.), who is handling a blog for the Augustana website on this trip, led the team in scoring with 13 points. Junior Chris Anderson (Mt. Carroll HS, Mt. Carroll, Ill.) and senior Bryant Voiles (Byron HS, Byron, Ill.) each dropped in 12 points. Sophomore Kameron Norton (Downers Grove North HS, Downers Grove, Ill.) scored nine points on four of five from the field.
The Vikings pounded the Snow Wolves on the boards, holding a plus 11 margin despite the fact that Dongguan’s starting center was 6’ 10” and weighed 270. Augustana also managed to grab 10 offensive rebounds in the game. George Dexter (Bettendorf HS, Bettendorf, Iowa), Brandon Kunz (Lake Zurich HS, Lake Zurich, Ill.) and Nelson tied for the rebounding lead with five apiece. Junior point guard Brian DeSimone (Buffalo Grove HS, Arlington Heights, Ill.) had six assists and just one turnover and the Vikings had 18 assists as a team.
Unlike the collegiate game, this international contest was played in four quarters. Augustana led 25-21 at the end of the first 10 minute session and were up 42-31 at halftime. The Snow Wolves made 10 of 26 three point attempts to stay in the game.
Giovanine’s team left the Quad Cities on Tuesday morning, August 3 and this game was the first of five games over the next nine days. The Vikings, who traveled by train this morning from Hong Kong in order to play the game, which had a 4:00 p.m. start, played a scrimmage two days ago against Hong Kong Baptist University.
“This was a good starting point for us in terms of the competitive part of our journey,” said Giovanine who is taking his fourth Augustana team on an international sojourn. He led the Vikings to Belgium and France in 2001, Ireland in 2004 and China in 2007. “We will play five games over the next nine days and will be traveling and getting an education at the same time. Dr. Norm Moline, our guide and educational liaison from the Augustana geography department, has done a wonderful job of making sure that our entire party is getting a tremendous dose of Chinese culture. He was tremendous at that three years ago and has once again outdone himself. We are very fortunate to have him with us as we combine basketball with history and culture in a country as vast and unique as China.”