Story and photos by Low Zheng Yu/Red Sports
Han Jun Seo (NUS #5) drives all the way for the transition basket. (Photo 1 © Low Zheng Yu/Red Sports)
NYP Sports Hall, Thursday, June 7, 2018 — National University of Singapore (NUS) got the win in their first match, defeating Nanyang Polytechnic (NYP) 66-39 in the National Youth Sports Institute (NYSI) Basketball League.
NUS have a 1-0 win-loss record while NYP falls to a 0-1 win-loss record. NUS will be facing Anglo-Chinese School (ACS) Oldham next while NYP will move on and play against Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD).
Being the first game of the season, with new teammates, NUS and NYP got off to a slow start. The chemistry was not there and shots were not falling despite several open looks for both NYP and NUS.
NUS vice-captain, Clement Chan (NUS #17), said, “While it was a slow start, we told ourselves from the beginning that this is the first game and we should take it easy but not take it lightly. So we told ourselves to at least give ourselves the first quarter to ease ourselves in and then put what we learn during training to use. After the first quarter, we will see how it goes and from there, we go quarter by quarter.”
The game would be decided by the team that could overcome their chemistry issues faster and NYP showed signs of that towards the end of the first quarter. They played good defense and made their shots to be up 13-9.
However, the NUS players collected themselves during the break and started to get into their grooves. They played lock-down defense on NYP limiting them to only three points in the quarter while hitting a barrage of shots to gain an eight-point lead over NYP at the half.
With the momentum from the second quarter, Raymond Loo (NUS #13) knocked down two three-point shots which got the team fired up as they continued their good plays to stay ahead. Despite that, Wong Teng Yew (NYP #5) tried to will his team back into the game. He made tough shots to keep the score close, leading his team with nine points.
While NYP tried to stage a comeback, NUS proved too much for them to handle. NUS continued their stellar defense and continued to score. Han Jun Seo (NUS #5) had a game-high 12 points.
Despite that, NYP treated it as a learning experience. Captain Koh Jun Xiong (NYP #6) said, “We gained experience in terms of trying to execute the plays that we did during training. Other than that, we also played against the bigger sized opponents from NUS which was an experience as well.”
NUS went on to outscore NYP 22-6 in the final quarter and took the game 66-39.
Clement Chan (NUS #17), added, “It was a mental game, but our focus for this game was more on the technical aspects. We observed that NYP did not really want to shoot the ball, so we sink in our defense and force them to do things that they didn’t want to do. We change the game tempo from there and attacked them at their weakness. Regarding the sharpshooting, we came to a consensus before the game that we must dare to shoot. If there is no courage to shoot, there would be no threat and without the threat, we would be a very easy team to defend. So, it all comes from the courage to shoot which we all agreed on.”
Despite the loss, Jun Xiang (NYP #6) hoped that the team would stay positive and work harder for their next game.
Scoring by Quarter
NUS vs NYP
1st Q: 09-13
2nd Q: 15-03 (24-16)
3rd Q: 20-17 (44-33)
4th Q: 22-06 (66-39)
Top Scorers
NUS
Han Jun Seo (#5) – 12 pts
Wang Jia Yuen (#7) – 11 pts
NYP
Wong Teng Yew (#5) – 9 pts
Zhou Zhenlong (#25) – 7 pts
Liow Cheng Lin Andy (#50) – 7 pts
NUS Roster
Johrathan Cheok Er Wen (#2), Keith Zhang Boliang (#3), Zhuang Bao Kun (#4), Han Jun Seo (#5), Max Ong Ngiap Meng (#6), Wang Jia Yuen (#7), Mohd Danish Han Bin Mohd Illias Han (#8), Zhu Ziyun (#9), Loo Jian Wei Raymond (#13), Leong Kai Yuan (#15), Chan Ming Rong Clement (#17), Ashley Ng Ming Xiang (#20)
NYP Roster
Gue Jonathan (#0), Kenneth Goh Jing Wei (#1), Zhu Zhiqiang (#3), Wong Teng Yew (#5), Koh Jun Xiong (#6), Lee Jia Jie (#7), Goh Sida Andy (#8), Sim Jun (#11), Chan Wei Len Wellen (#13), Clive Ng Kai Cheng (#14), Eldridge Ocuna Santamina (#18), Tew Zhi Yi (#20), Roshan Ahmad (#23), Zhou Zhenlong (#25), Syed Aziz Bin Syed Adun Dunluo Alattas (#34), Thasvind s/o Mogan (#35), Liow Cheng Lin Andy (#50), Yong Jun Cai (#75), Foo Jun Lin (#77), Alvis Tay Jing Lin (#88)
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