Day 3

Day 3

After a light morning of sightseeing, we headed for our game against Tsinghua University. TU has about 20,000 students. Most of their players studied business and economics.

The game was very physical, and competitive for most of the game. We held a lead as high as 11 points in the second half, but TU fought back. The officials were three students from the University who are hoping to become officials someday. Their head coach is a Chinese basketball legend who played on the National Team for many years, including 4 Olympic teams. Needless to say, the calls went to the home team down the stretch. What was a pretty well-officiated game became a free-throw shooting contest as every contact seemed to be a foul on the Fightin' Engineers. The final was 82-77 in favor of the home team. Our Chinese tour guide, Vivian, even apologized after the game because she thought we got a bit of a raw deal.

It was fun, and a good experience for both sides. At the end of the game, we had a special competition. In TU's league, they play each team home and away. If the games are split, they decide a winner with a free throw contest. Mr. Lee, TU's assistant coach, asked us if we would participate in this contest with them so they could practice making the free throws in that situation. We agreed, with a team suicide (that's a running drill) on the line for the loser. Unfortunately, we came up short on that one too 10-9, and the Engineers got a little extra conditioning in.

Gifts were exchanged, and everyone had a good time.

Tomorrow, its off to the Great Wall.

-Matt