NTU whitewash Republic Polytechnic 69-51 in IVP basketball

Story and pictures by REDintern Koh Yizhe

Nanyang Technological University, Monday, January 12, 2009 – Hosts Nanyang Technological University (NTU) outplayed Republic Polytechnic (RP) in the second half to win 69-51 in the Institute-Varsity-Polytechnic (IVP) Men’s Basketball Championship last night.

Despite taking a slim 13-12 lead into the second quarter, RP weren’t able to keep their game going and soon struggled to handle the larger NTU players.

RP #7 started the second quarter with a bang when he scored a three-pointer. This was followed by a series of points from the RP team. However, a couple of turnovers and fouls brought an end to RP's momentum and NTU climbed to within two points at 21-23.

The quarter remained tight as both teams traded points and thanks to the pressure by NTU and a series of three pointers, they were level at 28-28 after 8 minutes, whereupon the RP coach called for a timeout. However, it didn’t help much as NTU continued to control the game to end the half 37-31 up.

NTU extended their lead in the second half with superb passing and they increased the pace of the game, giving the RP defense no chance to catch up. They broke down RP with ease, with the NTU #14 deserving mention as his towering frame gave him many layups.

On the other hand, RP had trouble sinking baskets, wasting many free throws. RP were limited to just 10 points in the third quarter as NTU finished the quarter leading 52-41.

Much of the same followed in the final quarter with NTU dictating play and RP playing catch-up for the remainder of the match.

With this win, NTU now have an unblemished 3-wins-0-losses record while RP fell to 1-2.

N.B. If you recognise the players, feel free to leave their names in the comments section and we’ll update the captions.