Contributed by Sham Das

Kuala Lumpur, Saturday, July 18, 2010 — Six of the very best teams in the region got invited to the big dance that is the ASEAN School Basketball Championships 2010. And every year, few squads find that glass slipper to turn into Cinderellas.

Sometimes a team’s run only lasts for one game, while other teams run deep into the tournament. Regardless of the duration, these surprise winners had us screaming like school girls as we rooted for them to pull off a big upset. The triumph of the underdog is just one of the reasons why basketball is a preeminent event on any sporting calendar. The team in this case was the Singapore ASEAN School Games boys’ basketball team.

The Malaysian and Thai teams comprised mainly of players from the their respective national Under-18 squads from the recently-concluded South East Asia Basketball Championship. Philippines consists of players from the top high school in their country.

In the group stages, Singapore lost to Malaysia in the first game but came back strongly in the second game against Vietnam to finish runners-up in their group. Philippines topped the other group with Thailand runners-up and Indonesia finishing last.

Singapore met Philippines in the first semi-final whilst host nation Malaysia met Thailand in the second semi-final.

Team Singapore then went on to achieve what could possibly have been the biggest upset in the region by toppling the mighty Philippines. The win fully epitomized the triumph of a team over a collection of individuals.

The team was fronted by a group of second-tier players, with none of the Youth Olympic Games representatives and only four from the national youth squad.

They were, however, convinced that they could overcome tremendous odds by playing “the right way”.

Defending and rebounding were the keys to an 88 -82 upset of Philippines. The significantly smaller Singapore team had 58 rebounds compared to the 49 by the Philippines.

Abatayo and Munsayac led the Philippines with 29 points and 20 points respectively. Singapore’s scoring was led by their captain Lor Weng Siang and Nio Yuan Ming with 16 and 15 points respectively.

Scoring by Quarters
Philippines v Singapore
1st Q: 22-19
2nd Q: 17-24
3rd Q: 20-19
4th Q: 23-26

Statistics of Team Singapore
Peter Soo – 4 points, 8 rebounds
Lester Ng – 8 points, 5 rebounds
Remus Low – 8 points, 3 rebounds, 1 assist
Ng Kian Hao – 9 points, 1 rebound, 1 assist
David Soo – 2 points, 3 rebounds
Lor Weng Siang – 16 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists
Ng Wei Xiang – 5 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists
Wu Qingde – 9 points, 10 rebounds
Yuan Ming – 15 points, 2 rebounds
Delvin Goh – 9 points, 14 rebounds
Goh Kong Tat – 7 points 5 rebounds
Sean Hoo (did not play due to injury)

Coaches: Joe So, Sham Das
Team Manager: Lim Heng Boon