Story by REDintern Gerald Koh.

Republic Polytechnic, Friday, July 25, 2008 - The Institute of Technical Education (ITE) girls were crowned the 2008/2009 Polytechnic-Institute of Technological Education (POL-ITE) Basketball champions after a dramatic 60-56 win over defending champions Republic Polytechnic (RP).

The final day of the POL-ITE Women's Basketball Championship started with a match between two bottom-placed sides – Singapore Polytechnic (SP) and Ngee Ann Polytechnic (NP), both with four points apiece. The teams had nothing to fight for but pride as the championship came to a close. Both teams remained closely matched throughout their 40-minute match and at no time did the gap between them exceed 10 points.

The teams struggled to convert their shots into points during the entire game and it was mostly due to bad luck and inaccuracy, rather than good defending by the opposing team. NP led 18-16 at the end of the first quarter and then pulled slowly away to 30-23 by half-time. The NP players used their height advantage well, winning rebounds and making blocks. NP led by 10 at the end of the third quarter at 43-33.

Both teams came quickly off the blocks in the last quarter and really went for broke in the final minutes of the game, making numerous driving runs to their opponent's basket. SP eventually went down 52-57. SP will count themselves fortunate that they did not lose by a greater margin as they kept turning possession over cheaply to NP and that proved to a major reason for their defeat.

Nanyang Polytechnic (NYP) and Temasek Polytechnic (TP) contested the next match of the evening. Both were tied for second place along with defending champions Republic Polytechnic (RP). TP had to win to have any hope of winning the championship. Although the start of the match was cagey, TP showed why they were serious contenders as they started to stamp their dominance from the second quarter onwards.

TP made the leaky NYP defence pay as they pounced on defensive mistakes and poor passing to make the most of their shots to continually put points on the board. TP never lost the lead in the match and kept building on their advantage to finally triumph 85-48. TP now needed to hope that RP beat ITE but by no more than 14 points, in order to become champions.

The final match of the day was the one that everyone was waiting for – the championship decider between unbeaten ITE and RP. From the second the teams took to the court for their warm-ups, you could feel the heightened change in atmosphere, befitting a game of such significance.

Both teams played a fast-paced counter-attacking game but the ITE players were quicker on their feet on both offence and defence. RP were struggling to find any sort of rhythm in their game in the beginning minutes of the first quarter whereas ITE settled in very quickly. But RP started to get back into the game at later stages of the first giving ITE only a slender one-point lead as the first quarter ended.

ITE dominated the second quarter as RP made every effort to put points on the board but to no avail. ITE showed why they have been unbeaten all season with a strong showing in both defensive and offensive area and soon RP found themselves trailing by nine points at half-time at 23-32.

RP came out of the half-time break strong and persistent in attack. They soon found themselves in a good position with 5.4 seconds to go in the third quarter when the RP #7 was fouled by the SP #11 and had two free throws awarded. Making both free throws would have allowed them to take a one-point lead into the final quarter.

However, she only managed to score one but it leveled the score and both teams started the final quarter of the 2008/2009 POL-ITE Women's Basketball Championship on level terms. With a minute to go before the final whistle, ITE held a slender one-point lead over RP and the countdown to the finish was the most tense period of the match.

With 30 seconds to go, ITE extended their lead to three points at 59-56, and they held on to their lead and made another free throw in the final seconds of the game to finally defeat the defending champions 60-56 and get their hands on the POL-ITE Women's Basketball Championship trophy.

Final league standings
1. ITE – 15 pts
2. TP – 13 pts
3. RP – 11 pts
4. NYP – 9 pts
5. NP – 7 pts
6. SP – 5 pts