By Ian Chew

Singapore Basketball Centre, Sunday, 19 July, 2009 – Dan Elvir Cinco “Van Damme” of Tong Whye U17 team scored a driving reverse lay up at the buzzer to give his team a dramatic 75-73 semi final win over T-Net@Bukit Merah club.

With the win, Tong Whye will progress to meet the Combined Schools team in the final of the U17 category. The Combined Schools team, with superior strength in depth, had defeated Minyi in the other semi final 70-51.

Despite being on the losing side, coach Kwang Fu of the T-Net club was nevertheless proud of his team.

“They fought very hard and played well throughout the entire game. We just simply could not reply to our opponent (Van Damme’s basket) as the time had ran out,” he said.

In the U19 category, Tong Whye gave up a 9-point 32-23 lead at the half to eventually succumb to Tagawa 55-62.

Relying on a deeper bench, Tagawa outfought Tong Whye in the second half with key player Jin Hong leading the scoring. On the other hand, Tong Whye’s 1.96m centre Yong Wei faded in the second half and could not the sustain his earlier efforts for his team.

Minyi, on the other hand, unexpectedly whitewashed Woodlands Ring 86-35 in a one-sided semi final to march on to the final. A lethargic Woodlands Ring simply had no answer to the speed and desire of the defending champions.

View exciting 3rd quarter action of Tong Whye v Tagawa U19 semi final match:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAkYzdSLN44

View exciting 4th quarter action of Tong Whye v Tagawa U19 semi final match:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMqHrGF6_VM

View exciting 4th quarter action of Woodlands Ring Sec v Minyi U19 semi final match:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2VqwYwOjMU

View exciting 4th quarter action of Minyi U17 v Combined Schools semi final match:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lva9nPpLQD4