Youth Olympic Basketball: Singapore girls go down fighting to USA

Story by Ian Chew and Koh Yizhe/Red Sports. Photos by Marvin Lowe/Red Sports

*scape Youth Park, Monday, August 16, 2010 — At least Singapore can boast of having led briefly against the mighty USA team before falling 11-33 in the Youth Olympic Games girls’ basketball tournament.

Hannah Ng of Team Singapore scored on a 3-point attempt in the opening few seconds as the girls faced the daunting prospect of beating tournament favourites Team USA.

The lead however lasted all of a minute as Team USA came back to level the scores at three apiece.

A scrambling Singapore defense managed to keep the taller and stronger USA girls unsettled for the opening minutes of the game. The contest remained tight as Team USA committed some turnovers coupled with strong inside play to lead by a slim 8-7 scoreline.

Yet one can only keep talent down for so long.

Led by their inspirational centre Kiah Stokes, who also happened to stand at least a head taller than any of the Singaporean girls, Team USA chipped in points relentlessly from inside the paint. She eventually top-scored with 22 points for the game.

Team Singapore found the going especially tough in the second half as the USA girls mastered the wet conditions and kept Singapore to a four-point output in the second half.

The Singapore girls were unable to prevent the game from going the distance as they succumbed 11-33 for a second straight game. (Fiba 33 rules stipulate that the game ends when a team reaches 33 points first.)

“We wanted to just relax when we played today,” said Zoe Eng who managed two points against the mighty USA. “That was why we were really composed in this match. We were not really composed against Germany because we wanted to win that one, but today we were more composed and weren’t really nervous. We just wanted to use this game as experience. Our strategy coming into the match was just to focus on defending and I think we did that well. They were quite irritated and even complained to the referee.”

Tok Hui Min, who stands 29cm shorter than USA’s tallest player, agreed with her teammate, saying: “We just wanted to relax and defend well. We concentrated on that.”

When asked if there was a moment that she thought Singapore might beat USA, Zoe said, “Yes! There were a few moments actually especially when we took the lead and drew to within one point at 7-8.”

“We came into the match without pressure,” said captain Hannah Ng, who led the Singapore team with nine points. “We just wanted to give Singapore supporters something to cheer about. When I made the three pointer at the start, it gave me more confidence and motivated me to play better. We didn’t really expect much from this match and I thought we wouldn’t score at all! But in the end, we even lead for awhile so we definitely played above expectations.”

“I saw my family in the stands and I just wanted to do them proud,” added Hannah. “So I did my best.”

Team Singapore will next meet Belarus on Tuesday 17 Aug.

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