Youth Olympic Basketball: Hosts Singapore suffer defeat in opening match of women’s FIBA 33 against Germany

By Koh Yizhe/Red Sports. Photos by Tan Jon Han/Red Sports

*Scape Youth Park, Sunday, August 15, 2010 – Singapore’s basketball girls’ team had a difficult start to their Youth Olympic Games (YOG) campaign, losing their opening Group B match 22-33 to Germany.

The home team never really stood a chance against their larger European opponents. The Germans dominated the paint and Alexandra Hoffgen (#12), who is 1.87 metres tall, had her way with the Singapore girls, scoring 20 of her team’s 33 points. She also grabbed eight rebounds as the Singapore team were unable to contain her.

Hoffgen gave Germany the perfect start with a pair of free throws, and her team continued to score another five points, including a three-point play by Hoffgen, for a 7-0 run to start the match.

Singapore only got onto the scoreboard after a minute when Zoe Eng’s lay up gave her team their first points.

However, that did not stop Germany from extending their lead to 11-2 with Hoffgen adding another four. Singapore made a couple of careless turnovers, resulting in easy points for their opponents. Poor defending also clearly put paid to Singapore’s chances, and although they managed to cut Germany’s lead to seven towards the end of the period, they were still 22-15 behind at the end of the first half.

Much of the same continued in the second as Singapore were unable to reduce the deficit and even allowed their opponents to extend their lead. Soon, Singapore found themselves trailing by 14 points at 29-15, with their opponents needing just three more to win the game. That was when Singapore sparked to life, suddenly stringing together a series of points and going on a 7-0 run with captain Hannah Ng leading the way with five points.

However, with time running out and a deficit too huge to overcome, Singapore eventually fell 33-22.

“We are definitely disappointed because we thought we stood a chance coming into the match today,” said Alanna Lim who scored six points from three of four shooting from the field. “We fought hard and did our best so we don’t have any regrets.”

“I think it was just nerves that got to us,” continued the Singapore Chinese Girls’ School student. “It is our first match so we were nervous before. After today we will be more prepared for our next match. We have to work more together as a team and be more composed. That was the reason why we lost today.”

“She was the star player today,” continued Alanna, when asked about Hoffgen who made 10 of 12 free throw attempts. “We tried to contain her and bump her whenever she got into the paint, but we got quite a lot of fouls today.”

Singapore will play their next match tomorrow against the United States of America, undoubtedly one of the powerhouses and favourites of the tournament. However, Alanna seemed undaunted, saying, “We still stand a chance and we’ll do our best!”