Temasek Polytechnic on top in POL-ITE Basketball Championship after four rounds

Story By REDintern Koh Yizhe.

An RP player tries to score while an NP player defends. (Photo 1 © Hong Yong/Red Sports)

Republic Polytechnic, July 21 and 24, 2008 – Temasek Polytechnic (TP) won the clash of the titans against Singapore Polytechnic (SP) in the Polytechnic-Institute of Technical Education (POL-ITE) Basketball Championship. The boys team led from the first quarter to eventually win 62-52. Both teams had won all their matches leading to this final clash. After having beaten Ngee Ann Polytechnic (NP) 83-58 on the fourth day of competition, TP are now on top of the table with 12 points.

RP had lost their games on match-day three and four, first losing to NP and then to Nanyang Polytechnic (NYP), 55-70 and 67-91 respectively. The same thing happened to the Institute of Technical Education (ITE), losing to NYP 70-88 and to SP 61-65, the latter game a closely fought match.

SP started the game against TP well, with SP #3 making some penetrating passes resulting in easy points for them. But TP were not going down without a fight. They came back from a small deficit early in the first quarter to gain a slim 18-17 lead. From then on, TP never trailed. They began to extend their lead and ended the half 35-25 leaders. Despite having two national players, namely their #3 and #14, SP were unable to withstand the TP attack as the game slowly but surely slipped away from them. The rest of the match was uneventful as TP eventually won 62-52.

RP started by scoring the first eight points against NP in the second match of the day. Not to be outdone, NP fought back to lead 18-16 at the quarter. They continue to lead throughout the match and even established a 19-point lead in the third quarter. Just like SP in the previous match, RP began to lose control of the game and they went down 55-70.

On the fourth day of competition, ITE took on SP and gave them a scare by leading by as many as 10 points. ITE took a surprise 16-11 lead by the end of the first quarter and extended that lead to 10 points in the second. SP came back strong at the end of the second quarter with their #1 scoring at the buzzer to reduce the lead to just 6 points. A comeback was on the cards as SP had their best spell in the third quarter and finally leveled the score at 44-44 with just 1 minute and 20 seconds remaining. A three pointer at the buzzer by SP #12 gave themselves a slender 3-point lead to take into the forth quarter.

The intensity of the game resulted in the ITE #11 fouling out in the fourth. ITE never gave up, giving a thrilling end to the game by reducing the SP lead to just 2 points with less than one minute left on the clock. It was too little too late, however, as SP hung on to their lead for a 65-61 win.

In the next game between RP and NYP, RP let a 10-point lead in the first quarter slip away against NYP to register their third defeat out of four games. Despite scoring the first 8 points of the game, RP allowed NYP back into the game with NYP scoring at the first quarter buzzer to level the game 18-18. From the second quarter on, NYP dominated the game as they shot with amazing accuracy. This continued for the rest of the match which ended 91-67 in favour of NYP.

With only one round of matches remaining, TP are in prime position after winning all their previous matches. They are followed closely by NYP and SP who will fight it out in the final match. RP and NP have only one win and are tied for 4th. ITE are in last place having lost every match.