September 28, 2003 ProBuild defeats the Dutch champion
The ProBuild Lions have ended the pre-season with a win. Saturday night in the Indoor Centrum Landsmeer Lely Amsterdam was defeated 80-63. Anna Lembke collected 20 points and 7 rebounds, Gerda Heinen contributed 14 points and Jildis Pronk 13. In the first half Lely stayed in the game through the sharp shooting of Americans Ginger Fanelli and Molly McDowell, while Anna Lembke scored 17 of her 20 points for the Lions. In the third quarter the Lions took the lead for good, by stepping up on defence, holding Lely scoreless for the first six minutes. Pointguard Jildis Pronk scored 9 points to take the Lions to a 57-39 lead at the end of the quarter. In the fourth quarter ProBuild and Lely changed baskets, with Gerda Heinen scoring 9 of her 14 points. Amy Campion had just four points, but played an important role on the defensive end, and adequately took some of the pointguard-load of Jildis Pronk's shoulders. Coach Brian Benjamin was satisfied. "I thought we recovered well from the defeat we suffered on Friday. We missed two important players in Marte Linthout and Rachel Witkamp and some other players on the court were not too healthy either. I liked the defensive intensity of the third quarter. If we can learn to play that kind of basketball during a whole game, I think we'll be all right for the rest of the season."
The downside of the game was that another ProBuild player had to be put on the Injured List, as Leonie de Vlieger sprained her ankle and left the game in the third quarter. Due to the length of the list, the practice game of today against Den Helder had to be cancelled.
September 27, 2003 ProBuild Lions defeated by Shooters in practice game, 52-41
Friday night the ProBuild Lions visited the Bunschoten Shooters in Bunschoten-Spakenburg for a practice game. The Shooters ended in last seed last season, so a Landsmeer win was expected, although the Lions were a little short-handed. Marte Linthout was ill, Leonie de Vlieger had to work late, Rachel Witkamp was injured, Jolanda Jansen just game back from an injury and Nadine Boesaart and Miriam Benjamins had to leave the game due to injuries. That accounts for a lot of it, but according to coach Brian Benjamin the remaining Lions played without heart, coming of screens not fast enough, playing poor defence and turning over the ball no less than 25 times. Only Anna Lembke, Jildis Pronk and Miriam Benjamins, before she had to leave the game, were playing reasonably well. Lembke had 14 points and 5 steals and Pronk 8 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists and 4 steals. Amy Campion struggled, pulling down 9 rebounds, but shooting 2 of 14 from the floor and committing 7 turnovers. Hopefully the Lions will be able to recover fast as Saturday night they face the reigning national champion Lely Amsterdam and Sunday they travel to Den Helder to meet Noordkop for the last practice game of the pre-season.
September 23, 2003 Exhibition game
Saturday September 27th the ProBuild Lions will present themselves officially to the Landsmeer crowd and the press, as they play their last home practice game against the reigning champion BV Lely from Amsterdam. Game starts at 8.30 pm.
September 21, 2003 ProBuild Lions downs TV Bensberg in practice game, 69-67
German Bundesliga team TV Bensberg visited the Indoor Centrum Landsmeer to meet the ProBuild Lions in one of the last practice games before the start of the German season. With five international players and a budget that exceeds the ProBuild budget probably five times, there was a good reason to fear the German team. But that was not what coach Brian Benjamin wanted his team to do. He told his team to go out and play hard, to maintain a solid defence and grab as much rebounds as they could. And that was what the Lions did. After the first quarter the game was tied, 13-13. In the second quarter the game stayed close, but in the last minute Jess Hansen scored two three-pointers for Bensberg, 25-31. In the third quarter the gap was even widened to ten points, 36-46. But then the Lions stepped up defensively and held the Germans scoreless from the fourth to the eights minute of the fourth quarter. With half a minute to go, Marte Linthout sank a three-pointer to bring the Lions to the lead again, 59-57, but Leah Combs answered with a score to take the game to overtime. In overtime Amy Campion scored seven points, helping the Lions to a 69-66 lead. In the last second of the game Bensbergs Katarzyna Dluzyk was fouled by Gerda Heinen on a three-point attempt, but missed two of three times from the line and the chance to take her team to second overtime.
Amy Campion scored 16 points, grabbed 6 rebounds and had 5 steals, Anna Lembke had 15 points and Jildis Pronk 12 points and 9 assists.
September 20, 2003 Practice game against another German team
Sunday September 21 TV Bensberg visits Landsmeer to meet the ProBuild Lions in a practice game. The regioBerg Bascats, as they are called, are a German team with four international players on their roster, American-Italian pointguard Jacky Negrelli, Americans Leah Combs (Arizona State) and Jess Hansen (Santa Barbara) and Hungarian Dora Eperjessy. Looks like it's going to be a tough game for the Lions. Earlier in the pre-season ProBuild lost against two other German teams, BC Dorsten and BC Oberhausen.
September 14, 2003 Campion and Lembke signed
The ProBuild Lions have signed American players Amy Campion (G/F) and Anna Lembke (F/C) it was announced yesterday by the Lions' management after the game against Oberhausen. After three weeks practicing and several practice games and tournaments, coach Brian Benjamin decided he wants both Americans on his team. "Seeing Anna Lembke first time at practice, I already thought she would make a great addition to our team", he said. "Anna is a long and very athletic player, with a great offensive arsenal, which includes turn around jumpers, drop steps and some range in her shot. She has the ability to decide games from the free throw line. And she plays sound defence." Amy Campion took Benjamin a little bit longer to decide. "It took her some time to adapt. As a star and a point guard on her former college team Amy was used to have the ball in her hands all the time and making all the decisions on the court. Here she plays on the forward position most of time, sharing the ball and executing the plays called by others. On the one hand she still needs to work on some of her fundamental skills, but on the other hand she is a very versatile player and she seems to be a real stat stuffer, leading the team in all categories in the Oberhausen game." Coach Benjamin added that both girls are respected and well liked by the rest of the team and that they get along very well as housemates, which was also a factor in his decision. "And they're very nice and friendly persons."
September 13, 2003 ProBuild drops practice game against German team
Saturday afternoon ProBuild practiced against NB 92 Oberhausen, which ranks among the best teams of Germany. The Lions lost by 49-55, not a bad result at first glance, but with hindsight the Dutch team could have won easily. "It seems we were intimidated by the reputation of Oberhausen", coach Brian Benjamins thought. "We did not seem to play to win and executed not well on offence. We shot against a high percentage (55%), but we simply took not enough shots. We lost the ball several times through 24-second violations and things like that." Also coach Benjamin thought his guards and forwards failed to pass the ball inside. "Anna Lembke had just six shots and she went to the free throw line only two times, which was not her fault, because she did not get the ball in her hands." Lembke finished the game with 10 points. Amy Campion had a game-high 13 points, 8 rebounds and 4 steals.
September 10, 2003 Lions down Akrides IJmuiden in practice game
Wednesday night another practice game was scheduled for the Lions. Division II team Akrides IJmuiden visited the Indoor Centrum Landsmeer. The ProBuild Lions won convincingly, 72-22. Anna Lembke had 19 points and Amy Campion added 17. Marte Linthout suffered from a lightly irritated ankle tendon and scored 10 points in just 6 minutes and then stepped of the floor. Coach Brian Benjamin again praised the defensive intensity of his team. "We held Akrides to just four points in the second half. I liked what I saw. And this time we also added some offence. We shared the ball the right way and went to the basket aggressively. I saw some real progression here."
September 7, 2003 Lions suffer three losses in Luxembourg
The Lions dropped their three games in the City Cup Tournament in Luxembourg and traveled back to Landsmeer winless. Saturday ProBuild suffered it's first loss against T71 Diddeleng Luxembourg, 37-42. Sunday morning the Lions dropped two other games against Confreight Ekeren from Belgium, 27-41, and BC Dorsten from Germany, 35-44. Again coach Brian Benjamin was satisfied with the defensive intensity and the rebounding of his team. Offensively, however, the Lions turned over the ball a lot and had a poor .32 percent shooting percentage. Anna Lembke was the most productive Lion in all three games, with respectively 8,8 and 10 points.
September 5, 2003 Tournament in Luxembourg
This weekend the ProBuild Lions are off to Luxembourg, to participate in the City Cup 2003, an international tournament with teams from Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. The Lions will play three games, starting Saturday at 4 pm against T71 Diddeleng, the hometown team. Sunday ProBuild meets BG Dorsten from Germany and Confreight Ekeren from Belgium. Coach Brian Benjamin picked 11 players to make the trip to Luxembourg: Miriam Benjamins (F/C), Nadine Boesaart (C), Amy Campion (G/F), Stephanie Dijkstra (F), Gerda Heinen (G), Jolanda Jansen (G), Anna Lembke (F/C), Marte Linthout (G/F), Jildis Pronk (G), Leonie de Vlieger (F) and Rachel Witkamp (F).
September 1, 2003 Lions add two new players to the roster
Today the ProBuild Lions organization announced the signing of two new
players, 6-0 power forward Rachel Witkamp and 5-10 shooting guard Gerda
Heinen. Witkamp (1976) and Heinen (1981) are well known in Landsmeer, as
they both played for the Lions three seasons from 1999 until 2002. In the
2002-2003 season both decided to return to their hometown teams,
respectively Utrecht and Spakenburg. The Lions organization is happy to
have them back on the roster.
August 30, 2003 Lions down Jumpers in practice game
Saturday night the Lions had their first win of the season in a practice game in The Hague against the Jumpers, a Division II team. The crowd was far from large, but not without basketball celebrities. Dan Gadzuric, the Dutch center of the Milwaukee Bucks had come to watch his sister play in the The Hague team. The Lions won by 56-43. Anna Lembke had an impressive game, leading the team in points (21) and field goal percentage (.71) and making 11 of her 12 free throws. Nadine Boesaart and Amy Campion chipped in with 9 points each. Campion also had 7 rebounds. Coach Brian Benjamin was satisfied. "We worked very hard this week, practicing for two or three hours every day. Even today we had a two-and-a-half hours practice. So of course the girls were tired and had some trouble to keep up their concentration for the whole game. Still I already saw some of the defensive intensity I want. We concentrated on defence, rebounds and our inside game. We had 36 rebounds, which is not bad at all."
August 28, 2003 Season-opener on October 4th
The Dutch National Basketball Association issued a new competition schedule today, which became necessary after one of the teams withdrew from the competition earlier this week due to financial problems. The Lions will play their first game in the city of Nijmegen on October 4th against debutant Wildcats. The first game in Landsmeer is scheduled on October 11th, when 3ES Lieshout will visit Landsmeer.
24 augustus 2003 Amy Campion safely arrived
This morning ProBuild's second American player, Amy Campion, safely arrived on Schiphol airport. Coach Brian Benjamin picked her up and took her to his house in Amsterdam, where she met fellow-American teammate Anna Lembke and went to sleep. In the evening both players will move to their house in Landsmeer, which is located just opposite the Landsmeer Sport Centre.
24 augustus 2003 A crash course in Dutch W-Basketball
Realizing most US-citizens know as much about the Netherlands as we know about, let's say, Wyoming or Delaware, we thought it might be useful to give some more information on the Netherlands, Dutch women's basketball and the ProBuild Lions organization. After all it's nice to know in what kind of surroundings your daughter, sister, friend or ex teammate ends up after taking the big leap across the ocean. More.
21 augustus 2003 English
Foreign players start to come in, so from now on our updates will be summarized in English. First update
New arrivals
August 21, 2003 New arrivals
Wednesday ProBuild's first new foreign addition of the season arrived on Schiphol Airport, Huntington Beach (California, USA) native Anna Lembke, 23, a 6-3 forward, who played for Pepperdine University, where she averaged 5.4 ppg and 4.4 rebounds. www.pepperdine.edu. After being picked-up from the airport by teammate Chantall Breyaen Anna slept for a few hours and then practiced with the team in the evening and left a good impression on coach Brian Benjamin.
Sunday another American player is expected to arrive, 6-0 guard Amy Campion from Salisbury University, Md. OK, that's Division III, not the highest level in college basketball, but Amy averaged 24,3 points, 10,5 rebounds, 4,8 steals and 5,1 assist per contest. She was named CSTV Player of Year, Capital Athletic Conference's 2003 Player of the Year and became a member of the 2003 NCAA Division III Kodak All-America Women's Basketball Team. She is Salisbury's all-time scoring and steals leader. She finished her career with 1,938 points and 420 steals. Looking at the picture of the 2002-2003 Sea Gulls Team on their website, Amy's prominence is clearly noticeable. www.salisbury.edu If she can keep up those numbers on this side of the ocean, we'll have to give her a seat like that at the end of the season…
The ProBuild Lions have ended the pre-season with a win. Saturday night in the Indoor Centrum Landsmeer Lely Amsterdam was defeated 80-63. Anna Lembke collected 20 points and 7 rebounds, Gerda Heinen contributed 14 points and Jildis Pronk 13. In the first half Lely stayed in the game through the sharp shooting of Americans Ginger Fanelli and Molly McDowell, while Anna Lembke scored 17 of her 20 points for the Lions. In the third quarter the Lions took the lead for good, by stepping up on defence, holding Lely scoreless for the first six minutes. Pointguard Jildis Pronk scored 9 points to take the Lions to a 57-39 lead at the end of the quarter. In the fourth quarter ProBuild and Lely changed baskets, with Gerda Heinen scoring 9 of her 14 points. Amy Campion had just four points, but played an important role on the defensive end, and adequately took some of the pointguard-load of Jildis Pronk's shoulders. Coach Brian Benjamin was satisfied. "I thought we recovered well from the defeat we suffered on Friday. We missed two important players in Marte Linthout and Rachel Witkamp and some other players on the court were not too healthy either. I liked the defensive intensity of the third quarter. If we can learn to play that kind of basketball during a whole game, I think we'll be all right for the rest of the season."
Friday night the ProBuild Lions visited the Bunschoten Shooters in Bunschoten-Spakenburg for a practice game. The Shooters ended in last seed last season, so a Landsmeer win was expected, although the Lions were a little short-handed. Marte Linthout was ill, Leonie de Vlieger had to work late, Rachel Witkamp was injured, Jolanda Jansen just game back from an injury and Nadine Boesaart and Miriam Benjamins had to leave the game due to injuries. That accounts for a lot of it, but according to coach Brian Benjamin the remaining Lions played without heart, coming of screens not fast enough, playing poor defence and turning over the ball no less than 25 times. Only Anna Lembke, Jildis Pronk and Miriam Benjamins, before she had to leave the game, were playing reasonably well. Lembke had 14 points and 5 steals and Pronk 8 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists and 4 steals. Amy Campion struggled, pulling down 9 rebounds, but shooting 2 of 14 from the floor and committing 7 turnovers. Hopefully the Lions will be able to recover fast as Saturday night they face the reigning national champion Lely Amsterdam and Sunday they travel to Den Helder to meet Noordkop for the last practice game of the pre-season.
The ProBuild Lions have signed American players Amy Campion (G/F) and Anna Lembke (F/C) it was announced yesterday by the Lions' management after the game against Oberhausen. After three weeks practicing and several practice games and tournaments, coach Brian Benjamin decided he wants both Americans on his team. "Seeing Anna Lembke first time at practice, I already thought she would make a great addition to our team", he said. "Anna is a long and very athletic player, with a great offensive arsenal, which includes turn around jumpers, drop steps and some range in her shot. She has the ability to decide games from the free throw line. And she plays sound defence." Amy Campion took Benjamin a little bit longer to decide. "It took her some time to adapt. As a star and a point guard on her former college team Amy was used to have the ball in her hands all the time and making all the decisions on the court. Here she plays on the forward position most of time, sharing the ball and executing the plays called by others. On the one hand she still needs to work on some of her fundamental skills, but on the other hand she is a very versatile player and she seems to be a real stat stuffer, leading the team in all categories in the Oberhausen game." Coach Benjamin added that both girls are respected and well liked by the rest of the team and that they get along very well as housemates, which was also a factor in his decision. "And they're very nice and friendly persons."
Saturday afternoon ProBuild practiced against NB 92 Oberhausen, which ranks among the best teams of Germany. The Lions lost by 49-55, not a bad result at first glance, but with hindsight the Dutch team could have won easily. "It seems we were intimidated by the reputation of Oberhausen", coach Brian Benjamins thought. "We did not seem to play to win and executed not well on offence. We shot against a high percentage (55%), but we simply took not enough shots. We lost the ball several times through 24-second violations and things like that." Also coach Benjamin thought his guards and forwards failed to pass the ball inside. "Anna Lembke had just six shots and she went to the free throw line only two times, which was not her fault, because she did not get the ball in her hands." Lembke finished the game with 10 points. Amy Campion had a game-high 13 points, 8 rebounds and 4 steals.
The Lions dropped their three games in the City Cup Tournament in Luxembourg and traveled back to Landsmeer winless. Saturday ProBuild suffered it's first loss against T71 Diddeleng Luxembourg, 37-42. Sunday morning the Lions dropped two other games against Confreight Ekeren from Belgium, 27-41, and BC Dorsten from Germany, 35-44. Again coach Brian Benjamin was satisfied with the defensive intensity and the rebounding of his team. Offensively, however, the Lions turned over the ball a lot and had a poor .32 percent shooting percentage. Anna Lembke was the most productive Lion in all three games, with respectively 8,8 and 10 points.
Saturday night the Lions had their first win of the season in a practice game in The Hague against the Jumpers, a Division II team. The crowd was far from large, but not without basketball celebrities. Dan Gadzuric, the Dutch center of the Milwaukee Bucks had come to watch his sister play in the The Hague team. The Lions won by 56-43. Anna Lembke had an impressive game, leading the team in points (21) and field goal percentage (.71) and making 11 of her 12 free throws. Nadine Boesaart and Amy Campion chipped in with 9 points each. Campion also had 7 rebounds. Coach Brian Benjamin was satisfied. "We worked very hard this week, practicing for two or three hours every day. Even today we had a two-and-a-half hours practice. So of course the girls were tired and had some trouble to keep up their concentration for the whole game. Still I already saw some of the defensive intensity I want. We concentrated on defence, rebounds and our inside game. We had 36 rebounds, which is not bad at all."
This morning ProBuild's second American player, Amy Campion, safely arrived on Schiphol airport. Coach Brian Benjamin picked her up and took her to his house in Amsterdam, where she met fellow-American teammate Anna Lembke and went to sleep. In the evening both players will move to their house in Landsmeer, which is located just opposite the Landsmeer Sport Centre.
