Defending champs TP beat NYP in POL-ITE netball

By Les Tan

Temasek Poly, Monday, October 12, 2009 – Temasek Polytechnic (TP) beat Nanyang Polytechnic (NYP) 44-31 to set themselves up to retain the Polytechnic-Institute of Technical Education (POL-ITE) Netball Championship.

Temasek, the defending champions, blew open the game in the third quarter, outscoring Nanyang 11-4 after both teams had gone into the half-time break level at 19-19.

Poor rebounding and shooting by NYP cost them dearly, a point the TP coach, Mary Lee, picked up on.

“We took advantage of the mistakes they made and we were able to convert. She [TP GS] was really sinking them in. It took us two quarters to warm up. Once they warmed up, they realised they should just play their own game and not worry about what the opponent is doing,” said coach Lee.

It was NYP that set the early pace, jumping out to a 6-1 lead with a team that had two national Open, one national 21s and two national 19s players. TP only got their first point when NYP turned the ball over in defense.

However, TP soon recovered their composure to make it a 7-7 game before NYP edged ahead and walked off the court leading 9-7 at the end of the first period.

TP were the stronger out of blocks in the second quarter and eventually took their first lead of the game at 11-10. They put together a 5-2 run to go 12-11 up but could not pull further ahead as NYP matched them with scoring streaks of their own to ensure that it was even at 19-19 at half-time.

Everything then started to fall apart for NYP in the third quarter as their lack of match fitness showed. This translated into turnovers, poor rebounding and inaccurate shooting.

“I think in terms of overall fitness I thought they played a better game. We could take them for the first half and we faded away in the second. We could have done better,” said NYP coach Yeo Mee Hong.

“They did very well in the first half. Somehow, in the third quarter, and fourth quarter, they faded away due to their fitness levels. They looked tired in the third quarter. They were fired up in the first quarter,” she added.

TP scored five unanswered points to jump out to a 24-19 lead before NYP mustered their first response in the third quarter with two straight points. However, NYP couldn’t sustain it and TP outscored them 6-3 for the rest of the half to lead 30-24 at the end of the third.

The hot TP shooting continued in the final quarter as they put together a 5-1 run to establish a 10-point lead at 35-25. TP then got their biggest lead of the game at 12 points when they led 39-27 before wrapping up the game 44-31.

Their accurate shooting saw them outscore NYP 14-6 in the final quarter.

Elizabeth Cheong, 18, the TP captain, acknowledged the anxiety of facing NYP before the game.

“We didn’t have much time to practise before that. We only started training one month ago. We were a bit anxious. We know about the players that they have and what their strengths are but we have our own so-called stars. We have our own national 21s and 19s,” she said.

LIke her coach, NYP captain How Xian Wei, 21, also felt their match fitness let them down.

“We were pretty focused in the first two quarters. We had the potential to win but our stamina didn’t keep up with us. Everybody started cramping up. I think we were a little less prepared for this match being our first but still no excuse,” she said.

This game was considered the gold-medal match in the round robin competition which also involves Ngee Ann Polytechnic, Republic Polytechnic, Institute of Technical Education and Singapore Polytechnic. With this win, Temasek are heavily favoured to retain the POL-ITE netball championship again.

N.B. If you have the latest results of the POL-ITE netball games, please help us fill in the blanks at the SCHOOLS FIXTURES & RESULTS page. Thanks.

N.B. If you recognise the players in the photos, please let us know their names in the comments section and we’ll update the captions. Thanks.