Youth Olympic Basketball: Singapore girls start quest for 17th place with victory against Vanuatu

Story by Koh Yizhe/Red Sports. Photos by Les Tan/Red Sports

*scape Youth Park, Saturday, August 21, 2010 — Singapore secured their first win of the Youth Olympic Games FIBA 33 girls’ basketball competition with a 26-10 victory over Vanuatu to start their quest for 17th place off on a good note.

The host had failed to win any of their Group B matches, falling to Germany, United States of America, Belarus and Angola. This time, they were determined to pull off a win for the home crowd and they did just that, sprinting to an early lead and preventing Vanuatu from making a comeback.

Singapore were one down as Zoe Eng failed to recover from her ankle injury suffered in the last game against Angola. “Zoe couldn’t play because of her ankle, but she was encouraging us all the way from the sidelines. We just wanted to win it for her,” said teammate Tok Hui Min.

Captain Hannah Ng gave Singapore the perfect start, driving to the basket after 30 seconds for a layup. Vanuatu immediately replied on the next possession but Alanna Lim gave Singapore back the lead, one that they would hold on to for the rest of the game.

Hui Min had not shown up in the previous games, and even suffered a bad stomach ache in their final match against Angola. This time, though, she was firing on all cylinders. Standing at 1.63 metres tall, she scored 10 points in total and pulled down nine rebounds.

Hui Min gave Singapore a 6-2 lead off a feed from Alanna after she sneaked behind the defense and put it over her head for the layup. She then added another two with a layup for an 8-2 Singapore lead.

Singapore played with more confidence than in previous games, pressuring Vanuatu to commit shot-clock violations. With a minute and a half remaining in the first period, Alanna extended Singapore’s lead to 10-2 before Hui Min sneaked behind the defense again to put Singapore 15-3 up at the interval.

The second half started in similar fashion for Singapore, with Hannah and Hui Min scoring two points each. Hannah also made a three-pointer midway through the second, but playing with one person down finally took its toll on Singapore and they soon began to tire.

Despite this, Singapore still managed to hold on to their lead and prevented Vanuatu from making a comeback. Vanuatu managed to make a three-point play through Poline Maliliu at the end but it was a case of too little, too late as the Singapore girls sealed their first victory of the tournament.

“My performance was good, but my stamina was very lousy,” said Hui Min. “We really wanted to win it as this match presented our highest percentage to win a game. In our next two games, we will definitely try to win. We really want to get the 17th spot.”

Although she led her team with a game-high 10 points and 11 rebounds, captain Hannah was not too pleased about her performance. “I wasn’t feeling the ball today,” explained Hannah. “I had a couple of open shots but I couldn’t feel the ball and I just threw it up. Today our team managed to get more shots in. We were luckier.”

“Vanuatu is not a shooting team, but their stamina is fantastic! They can play a full game at full speed and not tire, unlike us,” anaylzed Hannah.

“For our next game, we play against Thailand. They are a fast team and we are a man down, which means we get less time to rest and don’t have fresh legs for that boost of energy.”

Singapore play Thailand at 9.30am, Sunday, August 22nd. Tickets are all sold out.