AYG FIBA 33 Basketball: Singapore boys impress despite opening loss against China

Story by Alan Chiang/Red Sports. Pictures by Koh Yizhe/Red Sports and Vanessa Lim/Red Sports

Anglican High School, Wednesday, July 1, 2009 - Mighty China beat Singapore 34-21 on the opening day of the FIBA 33 Basketball competition at the Asian Youth Games.

China won the game when they hit the 33-point mark before the three regulation periods were completed, but Singapore impressed by scoring 21 points.

China have a formidable reputation, having won the most number of FIBA Asian Championship titles. In addition, their AYG squad boasts an average height of two metres, with Singapore’s tallest player Russel Low standing ‘only’ at 1.93m.

Therefore it was no surprise that China won the tip-off with ease with Zhang Minghao (#5), standing at a mighty 2.06m, clearly towering over Russel (#5). The points drained in for China almost immediately as Singapore were slowly finding their feet on the court.

When Russel scored his first points for Singapore, he sparked to life. He managed to contain Zhang in the paint with several consecutive blocked shots that made the home crowd break out in applause.

While Russel was having some success containing Zhang, Singapore’s captain Jabez Su (#4) had to endure a tougher time from his counterpart, Li Weijie (#7), who had seven points in the first period.

Larry Liew (#11) also played his part, making a 3-point contribution to cut China's lead to a mere three points, as the home team trailed 8-11 after the first period.

China began the second period strongly and increased their lead to eight points within the next three minutes. They asserted their height dominance with most of the points coming from the paint.

Russel then sat out and Goh Kong Tat (#12) was introduced but the change did not improve the situation as China's lead was extended to 11 points by the end of the second period at 23-12.

In the final period, China carried on where they left off earlier, and their lead swelled to 16 within the next minute. However, Singapore staged a strong comeback to reduce the deficit to nine points with great inter-play between Jabez and Larry.

Nevertheless, China reached the 30-point mark with 1:35 remaining to play, and Singapore would lose their opener if any China player successfully made a 3-pointer.

Singapore managed to hang on for the next 35 seconds but China’s Weijie, clearly a star performer on court, made two field goals to reach the necessary score as his team posted a comfortable victory.

"Overall we are quite satisfied with our performance given that we have a height disadvantage in the game," said Singapore’s captain Jabez Su. "They (China) are physically stronger in the paint."

The Singapore AYG team had been training since February this year with as many as three to four sessions a week. Jabez stated that it was a great challenge to juggle both studies and sports since then.

Neo Nam Kheng, the Singapore coach, said, "The training started quite early and there was a well-planned schedule in place to help the players juggle both studies and basketball."

He added, "The China AYG team are the champions at the club youth level and they have professional training, unlike our team."

He is looking forward to the next match against Uzbekistan as he feels that Singapore has a good chance to win.

Match Statistics
Points by period
1st: SIN 8 CHN 11
2nd: SIN 4 CHN 12
3rd: SIN 9 CHN 11

Scorers
SIN
Jabez Su (#4) - 7 points
Russel Low (#5) - 6 points
Larry Liew (#11) - 8 points

CHN
Huang Guobin (#4) - 6 points
Zhang Minghao (#5) - 8 points
Zhao Xingchen (#6) - 2 points
Li Weijie (#7) - 18 points