Story by REDintern Gerald Koh and photos contributed by reader Joey Teh.
Republic Polytechnic, Wednesday, July 16, 2008 – Republic Polytechnic (RP), the Institute of Technical Education (ITE) and Nanyang Polytechnic (NYP) emerge victorious in their respective Polytechnic-ITE (POL-ITE) Basketball Championship games yesterday.
Day two of the POL-ITE Basketball Championships for girls started off with defending champions Republic Polytechnic (RP) meeting Ngee Ann Polytechnic (NP) in what began as a enthralling match with multiple turnovers being made in the first minute of the game. However, RP drew first blood and began to impose their presence upon NP, taking advantage of their home court to dominate the match. At the end of the 1st quarter, RP led 24-0, as the NP players struggled to find any rhythm in their passing or to capitalize on many of RP’s errors.
RP continued their domination, leading 42-15 at the half and 71-25 at the start of the fourth quarter. NP valiantly defended the RP onslaught but the pedigree of RP’s players took its toll on the NP team, whose coach constantly made substitutions throughout the match. The match ended 87-37, with many in the stands feeling that RP should have made triple-digits.
The next match was between Temasek Polytechnic (TP) and ITE. The match started with ITE winning the tip-off, but both teams were evenly matched with ITE holding a slim 14-11 at the end of the 1st quarter. A minute into the 2nd quarter, the TP #11 had to be taken off and could not make a return to the game when she fell awkwardly after being challenged for the ball.
The second quarter was also tightly contested, with ITE walking off with a three-point 30-27 lead at half-time. After half-time, both teams came out strong to look for the win, but ITE built on their narrow half-time lead and stamped their mark on the game with tough defending by denying TP players the time and space to get shots and passes off. ITE ended the 3rd quarter leading 49-37 and kept their lead throughout the 4th quarter to win the game 68-46.
Nanyang Polytechnic (NYP) and Singapore Polytechnic (SP) competed in the last match of the day. The tight game saw both teams tied at just 2-2 after two minutes. Both teams put fresh points on the board and SP finished the quarter ahead 15-8. Similar to the first quarter, the score was tightly contested as the teams went into half-time with SP just ahead at 30-31.
The 3rd quarter started with the NYP coach using the NYP #1 to man-mark the SP #7 who seemed to be the important cog in the SP machine. The relentless defensive work of the NYP #1 proved effective and the SP point guard lost her momentum and rhythm. It was clearly visible that this strategy was affecting the way SP played as they lost the lead as the third quarter drew to a close to trail 34-40. The 4th quarter was played out almost identically to the previous quarter and SP eventually lost 38-61, an unfortunate loss given their strong start.
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