By Koh Yizhe/Red Sports
Home United Basketball Club’s Koh Meng Koon (#10) drives to the basket. He scored a game-high 21 points to help his side to the final of the National Basketball League. (Photo 1 © Koh Yizhe/Red Sports)
Singapore Basketball Centre, Sunday, May 16, 2010 – Home United Basketball Club and Eng Tat Hornets will play in the final of the National Basketball League (NBL) after both sides won their respective semi-finals.
Home United were pushed all the way by Siglap Basketball Club before they eventually triumphed 62-55. In the other semi-final, Eng Tat Hornets dethroned Singapore Armed Forces Sports Association (SAFSA) in emphatic fashion, blowing the defending champions away by 18 points, 74-56.
The first semi-final between last year runners-up and Siglap Basketball Club was a tight affair in the opening exchanges. Both sides cancelled the other out and the scores were still level at 10-10 after little over eight minutes played.
However, that was when Home United upped their defense and expertly turned it into offense with a couple of fast-breaks. Koh Meng Koon (Home United #10) led the charge with seven points in his side’s 9-0 run during the last 1:47 minutes of the quarter for a 19-10 going into the second quarter.
Despite their late charge in the first, Home United were unable to continue their momentum in the second period, allowing Siglap back into the match. Siglap drew level at 19-all with Derek Aw (#8) nailing a jumper midway through the quarter, before Teng Cang Wei (#20) gave his side the lead at 23-22.
It did not last long, however as Meng Koon put up another four points to snatch the lead back at 26-23 going into the interval.
There was nothing between the teams in the third quarter with both sides tussling for the lead. Siglap levelled it at the start, but Home United managed to extend their lead to 10 points at 36-26. Never a team to give up, Siglap responded towards the end, narrowing the deficit to just one point at 37-38, setting the stage for an exciting final quarter.
Although Steven Khoo (Siglap #3) gave his side the lead at the start of the fourth, the final 10 minutes belonged to Home United. Mitchell Folkoff (#4), who has recently graduated from Temasek Polytechnic, stepped up to led Home United with seven points as they took a five-point lead and never looked back. Towards the end of the match, Meng Koon nailed five straight free throws to maintain his team’s lead and to send them into the final.
“We have trained hard for this tournament,” said Koh Meng Koon, who was very modest about his game-high 21 points. “The structure of the club is changing with fresher, younger players coming in and so far, they have been doing well. Today, their performances in defense and offense were key to our victory.”
“Credit to Siglap though, they are a good team. Now we’ll start preparation for the final based on who goes through with us,” added Meng Koon.
They will face Eng Tat Hornets after Desmond Ho (#8) paired with Chan Kok Feng (#28) to dethrone SAFSA 74-56. Both of them led their side with 20 and 14 points respectively.
Defending champions SAFSA took the game to Eng Tat in the opening quarter and had them on the back foot, but Eng Tat soon found themselves back in the game at the end of the first with only one point separating the teams at 15-14. They eventually took the lead at 18-17 through Jeffery Fu (#14) before extending it to 32-27 at the break.
From the third quarter on, Eng Tat dominated the game. A fine three-point shooting display from Eng Tat wrapped the match up in the third period with Michael Wong (#11) hitting one while Gary Koh (#10) contributed two, nailing back-to-back treys to put his side in a commanding position.
Eng Tat then easily sealed the game in the fourth quarter, and eventually ended the game with their biggest lead at 74-56
The final will be played at Singapore Basketball Centre at 2030 hours on Sunday, May 23, 2010.
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sorry !!! the favs are eng tat , home united need to play against the national coach and the national programme . If eng tat lose, BAS have too much face to lose ,
they got professinal coach , professional player so many national player and a malaysian state player. Home u have only one national player and the rest all ageing singaporean oldies.,, going into their mid thirties… how to compete against the formidable hornets sting? home u got only one mitch, eng tat got 4 unstoppable players, Mike , Des , Rong Lie and Hong Ming plus the leaping original fly boy jeffrey.
Mitchell just too strong.factor of home utd victory over siglap..To win,eng tat need to come up with a plan to stop him
sometimes its not what the ref sees but what the refs think.and the angle of the play too.
Agreed.refs are making calls that is not there and contested shot as foul.Most of them were cleans.but instead,i see people from teams pulling shirts when the person tried to pass him. There were 3 refs but none of them saw and call for it..(seen pulling of shirt not just 1 or twice in a match..at least 10.But refs nvr saw it.to make the finals a better 1,i hope all the refs are those with much more experience
last pic is not lim min jie.is gary koh.
Yes, of course. Lim Min Jie is from SAFSA.
Thanks for the correction
Referess were bad in the eng tat game and worse in the home U game… refress are taking the lime light in these games now days. Please improve …..