Early wake up time over here in Asia for the 2:00 pm tip time on the West Coast. Great game to watch. Before I start going in to the details of Banchero's performance, I think it is important to note that DII basketball in the US is usually a guard-oriented game. Many of the players have high skill levels, but for one reason or another they were not recruited by the bigger schools. Both teams showed great basketball abilities today, with Western Oregon getting the upset in the end with an 88-85 victory over the Seattle Pacific Falcons.

Banchero had an up and down performance. He had his lowest scoring half of the season in the first half with only two points on 1-7 shooting, but then exploded for 24 points after the break. His coach has some interesting comments on Banchero's performance.

Despite his poor shooting, Banchero had some gorgeous assists early as he penetrated into the key and then dropped off to his bigs. On a few occasions Banchero forced his offense and took ill-advised long distance shots. In the second half he did not shoot off the dribble, instead waiting patiently for the ball to find him open on the perimeter. When he has his feet set and is in rhythm it seems like he does not miss.

Anytime you score 26 and have 10 assists you should feel proud of your performance. Unfortunately he is probably still kicking himself after making a dumb play at the very end of the game. Down by three with just seconds remaining he broke free from the press and took it all the way to the hoop instead of pulling up for the 3-pointer to tie the game. SPU thus was still down by 1 with only 1.6 seconds remaining. It is a small thing to fault a player on, but it is the kind of mistake a senior should not be making.

Next up is Saint Martin's from down the road in Olympia. The game will be streamed online, so follow me on twitter (asiabballupdate) to get a time and place reminder.

And there is the face that makes Filipino basketball fans . . . that includes everyone in the country I think . . . to go crazy with excitement. As I tried to work out the criteria for who to include in the updates section I skimmed through pages and pages of posts on the interbasket.com forums and followed up with hours of google searches. In the end I decided I wanted to find players in Asia who meant something to the future of the game in their home country (Jeremy Tyler is the best example of this) and find Asian players currently playing outside of Asia who would have the biggest impact when they came back to Asia. Banchero's name is all over the internet as a Filipino-American who can really play ball. As I mentioned in another post, covering Filipino basketball scares me. People care about the sport so much in the Philippines that I can only imagine what the response would be if I get something wrong. Be nice Philippines!

Banchero plays point guard for the Seattle Pacific University Falcons. He is the leading scorer,and the undisputed star of the team. In his first eight games this season he has averaged 25.5 ppg, 5.6 apg, 3.6 rpg,and 1.5 spg. He scorers from all areas of the floor and shoots a relatively high percentage for a shoot-first guard. It must be noted that SPU is a Division II school, but still the competition he plays is better than almost any league in Asia.In 2010 he was added to the prospective player list for Smart Gilas, signifying he is firmly on the radar of those in charge of basketball in the Philippines.

On December 30th Chris and the Falcons will begin the Conference portion of their schedule. My goal with his updates is to provide brief summaries of how he is playing and direct links to more information and hopefully video and radio feeds. Check back here often or watch my twitter account (asiabballupdate) for updates.

Happy Holidays!