By REDintern Ronnie Yeo
Wu Qingde of RP throws a pass out to a teammate against NTU. Qingde had a team-high 14 points. (Photo 1 © Les Tan/Red Sports)
NTU, Tuesday, February 7, 2012 — In a tightly contested game, Republic Polytechnic (RP) defeated Nanyang Technological University (NTU) 65-63 in the final of the Institute-Varsity-Polytechnic (IVP) Men’s Basketball Championship.
This is the first ever IVP championship for RP who finished fourth in 2011. For NTU, it was their second IVP final loss in a row after they had gone down 45-50 to National University of Singapore in 2011.
NTU had previously beaten RP 62-58 during the group round.
NTU started out strong, going on a 17–6 run, including four 3-pointers, to lead the game 23-10 at the end of the first quarter.
“Our players were less matured and experienced than the opponent, and we started out too rushed. I told the boys, slow down, it’s only the first quarter, and they did, and we managed to catch up eventually,” said RP coach Tan Lip Loong.
RP came right back and opened the second quarter with an 11-0 run, allowing NTU to get its first point only six minutes into the quarter from a free throw by Teo Chun Hoe, who led all scorers in the game with 23 points.
The teams were tied 31-31 at half time.
The second half was tightly contested, with each side trying to hold on to a lead. At one point, RP led by as many as eight points but NTU kept the pressure on, keeping the game close.
The score was tied at 63-63 with 56.9 seconds left after NTU’s Andy Teo hit a lay-up, but RP sealed the game with a lay-up of their own through Pillay (#35) with six seconds left in the game.
“We worked together as a team. In POL-ITE, we finished third because we had no conditioning. It was hard to get everyone together to train because we were from different clubs. We trained together for two months for IVP. Our IVP target was top 3,” said RP captain Edwin Tan, who finished with 13 points of his own.
“The key was beating Ngee Ann Poly (78-59) in the IVP semi-finals. We had lost to NP by 30 points during POL-ITE,” added Edwin.
In the women’s IVP basketball final, RP were also crowned champions after defeating Singapore Institute of Management (SIM) 59-58.
“Our fighting spirit was good. Although we were losing at the start, we managed to keep fighting and win the game,” said Koh Wei Bin, captain of the RP team.
IVP Basketball Championship — full results
Quarter by Quarter Scores
NTU vs RP
1st Q: 23-10
2nd Q: 8-21 (31-31)
3rd Q: 16-18 (47-49)
4th Q: 16-16 (63-65)
Top Scorers
NTU
Yap Ching Poh (#13) — 14 points (including 1 x 3-pointer)
Teo Chun Hoe (#31) — 23 points
Republic Poly
Poh Wei Hao (#1) — 9 points (3 x 3-pointers)
Edwin Tan (#79) — 13 points (including 3 x 3-pointers)
Wu Qing De (#12) — 14 points
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