NTU achieves rare double win in IVP men and women basketball finals

Story by Ian Chew. Pictures by Koh Yizhe.

NTU, Thursday, January 21, 2009 – Buoyed by their close semi-final win over Nanyang Polytechnic (NYP) just three days earlier, Nanyang Technological University (NTU) roared past Temasek Polytechnic (TP) 63-52 for the Institute-Varsity-Polytechnic (IVP) Basketball Championship title.

After a cagey first quarter, NTU broke out for a 35-25 lead at the end of the first half with Zhang Hao scoring a spectacular buzzer beater 3-point shot from close to the halfway line. He had continued his hot scoring form from his last second heroics from the earlier semi final.

A brief scare came in the first quarter for the NTU bench when key point guard Ronnie suffered an ankle injury. TP captain Mitchell Folkoff had knocked the ball of Ronnie’s hands but Ronnie landed awkwardly in the process. In spite of that, the rest of NTU players rallied admirably for a game-high 10 point lead at the end of the first half.

A desperate comeback by TP in the third quarter petered out as the NTU forwards kept up their hot shooting form. A dismal shooting performance by the TP team did not help matters, as they contrived to miss all of the long range efforts, as well as numerous free throws, in the first three quarters. The third quarter ended with NTU establishing their biggest lead of the game at 53-38.

TP’s hopes of achieving their third consecutive men’s IVP basketball championship looked to be buried at this point, until Mitchell inspired his team in a last ditch comeback effort. Perhaps also spurred by TP coach Tan Jing Yang’s team talk during the break, the defending champions drove repeatedly into the basket and immediately reaped the results. NTU’s lead was cut to 59-50 with more than seven minutes to go!

However, the physically intense play throughout the game was beginning to tell on the TP players, as Mitchell was whistled for his fourth personal foul. Despite that, TP coach Jing Yang had no choice but to keep his starters on the court for a slim hope of victory.

That was not to be though, as NTU’s superior fitness showed in the end. The home team outlasted the visitors in final few minutes for a comfortble victory.

TP coach Tan bemoaned his team’s chances in the game.

“The crucial moment came in the second quarter as we allowed NTU’s #8 (Raymond) to score eight unanswered points. We could not recover from that deficit after that and were left chasing the game throughout,” he said.

In contrast, NTU’s coach Joe So reflected his team’s joy at winning the title.

“I am very proud of this team as they have shown the desire to win the title from the beginning and trained hard as a result,” he said.

NTU achieved a rare double when their women’s team won the other basketball final played at the same time.