Anyone walking by Borden Gym last Sunday would have heard the unmistakable sounds of cheering, squeaking shoes and dribbling that could have only come from a basketball game. The Asian Society Basketball Tournament drew 30 student spectators to watch four teams compete last Sunday. The teams represented the Andover Japanese Connection, Chinese-Taiwanese Student Association, Andover Korean Society and Indo-Pak. All of these clubs are a part of Asian Society. The Andover Korean Society team, made up of Peter Bang ’11, Andrew Lee ’10, Michael Yoon ’10, Seyoung Lee ’12, Jonathan Na ’11 and Austin Mei ’12, won the tournament after two hours of play. Na said, “[The tournament] was a good gathering…It wasn’t too serious.” Bang and Lee also said they had fun during the tournament. Aya Murata, Advisor to Asian Students, oversaw the tournament. “The tournament is an opportunity to meet people while having fun on a Sunday afternoon,” Murata said. “This is my 15th year [as an advisor to] Asian Society, and this tournament is at least 10 years old. I can’t remember not doing it,” she said. This is one of the major Asian Society events held during Fall term each year, said Curie Kim ’09, co-head of Asian Society. Each team was required to have at least one girl on it to compete, according to Kim. “Guys play [basketball] more often; it’s usually sexually biased. We’d definitely like more girls to be involved. We thought we’d encourage girls to make sure one team is not all about girls or all about guys,” she said. Spectator Angela Kim ’12 said, “I’m surprised that members of the Chinese-Taiwanese Student Association came and briefly played on the Korean team. They got along really well. We get to meet new people; it’s a lot of fun.” Paul Noh ’12, a player for Andover Japanese Connection, said of the support from fans, “People scream and cheer a lot. I know that Andover Korean Society was very supportive of their team.” Socializing and fun were not the only incentives; pizza was served to all players and spectators afterwards. Murata will also award a munch, an informal food party, to the winning Andover Korean Society team. Among the happy and hungry crowd surrounding the pizza boxes, Murata said, “Anytime you can give people free food, it is always good.”
