Youth Olympic Basketball: Singapore boys grab first win with victory over South Africa

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

*scape Youth Park, Saturday, August 21, 2010 — After their valiant display against the United States of America in their final group match, the Singapore basketball boys continued their fine form as they defeated the Republic of South Africa 21-12 for their first win in the Youth Olympic Games (YOG) FIBA 33 competition. This round of classification games will determine positions 17 to 20.

Singapore had lost all their Group C matches, but showed good form in their last match against favourites USA, pushing their much taller opponents all the way. Against the Africans, who were shorter than them on average, the Singaporeans continued pulled out a victory.

Larry Liew, in particular, performed brilliantly, finishing with six points and a team-high seven rebounds. It was he that got Singapore going within the first 30 seconds with a driving layup. Tan Jun Wei then got Singapore’s second points with a layup of his own.

Russel Low, who stood as the tallest player of the game at 1.95m, was also on form and dominated the paint. He blocked four shots and kept South Africa quiet, limiting them to just 14% shooting from the field.

Captain Jabez Su gave Singapore a 6-2 lead after Nkosinathi Festile scored South Africa’s first points with a little under three minutes played. However, Duke Lazarus brought it to within one at 5-6 with a three-pointer to make Singapore nervous. Another three-pointer by captain Justin Paton put South Africa in the lead for the first time in the game at 8-7.

That did not stop Singapore’s momentum and confidence, however, and Jabez Su provided the perfect reply, making a three-point play to restore the lead with a little over a minute left to the break. His points brought much cheers for the team and it sparked an 8-0 run as Singapore ended the half on a high.

Everything seemed to be going right for Singapore in the match and they were playing with plenty of confidence and aggressiveness. Even their free throw shooting, which was dismal in the previous games, improved, and they made seven of 13 attempts from the charity stripe.

Larry started the second half strongly for Singapore with a long two-pointer, but there was not much action after the break as Singapore held on to their lead. The host took their foot off the pedal as they scored just six points, with Larry taking four of them while Russel got the other two from under the basket towards the end of the match.

“Out of all the games, I think this is my best performance,” commented Larry, who scored six points but missed all of his six three-pointer attempts. “Quite satisfied but I missed quite a few three-pointers. I didn’t really feel the ball today and couldn’t get my three-pointer stroke right. At the earlier stages of the tournament, I think I was a bit nervous but today the pressure was a bit off so I played better.”

“It is the first game we won,” said a satisfied Tan Jun Wei, “The opponents were quite good but we fought hard and managed to win. I am happy about my performance and I felt Larry and Russel were really good.”

Captain Jabez was “quite satisfied with the win” and felt that his team played with confidence. About India, their next opponents, Jabez said: “We played against them last year at the Asian Youth Games and beating them again will be our goal.”

The boys will take on Panama on Sunday, August 22nd, at 9.30am.

For Singapore fixtures and results, go to our 2010 YOG fixtures page