Written by: Ong Jia Jie Edited by: Leung Lok Heng & Choa Zhao Xiang Photos by: EusoffWorks
On the final day of IHG (RIP track), lots of finals were lined up for Eusoffians across multiple sports to vie for the title of overall IHG champions and we were neck and neck with our neighbours, TH. With the results of each game getting released as the day progressed, our basketball girls became the pivotal game to confirm Eusoff’s victory.
TH was aggressive from the start, and their first attack was a set play with good runs, shaking up Eusoff’s defence as they laid in a basket. The basketball girls were quick to respond with a ball to Vera in the low post, who kicks it back out to Jinwen who’s always there to rain threes on her opponents and SWISH, the first bucket for Eusoff is a nasty three by the captain! The girls had solid off-ball movement and they strung together a series of passes which ended up in the trusty hands of Vera who makes getting buckets look easy. The TH defence tightened up and our girls were poking and prodding, trying to find ways to get a basket. When it looked like we were going to run out of time as the shot clock wound down, Aderes says SCREW THEIR DEFENCE and fires a three from way outside and BANGBANG. Superstar Shanice who already bagged a gold from floorball earlier today demonstrates her insane finesse, recognising the space in the paint and drives in hard to lay the ball in. Joey used her insane reach and dominated the paint by getting an inbound ball and simply shooting it over her defender for an AND-1 play! With 4 seconds remaining in the first quarter, TH desperately tries for a quick play and their player puts up a shot from nearly half court and IT FREAKING WENT IN… Gotta give it to them, that buzzer beater was pretty sick. The game was SUPER intense and the scoreline at the end of the first was TIED at 18-18!
Hwee Ching goes for another one of her incredible shots.
We started off the second quarter with a quick feed by Angela to Joey who made a good run into the paint and lays in one off the glass for ANOTHER AND-1! Joey’s FT didn’t go down but good rebounding by Shiyi who immediately throws it up again with an overhead throw and IT GOES IN! (Joey actually missed the FT on purpose for a high level 4 point play!) Our girls seemed to enter sort of a slump halfway during the second quarter as our passes did not quite connect, leading to turnovers or wasted opportunities. However LYLC Georgia took the reins and ended the scoring drought with a FAT JUICY 3 pointer in the face of her defender! Jin Wen helped to continue the momentum by doing a nasty jab step which threw her defender off and she drives in for the layup (gets fouled but sinks her 2 free throws). It’s clearly the Jin Wen show towards the end of the second quarter as she lays in another two baskets to end the second quarter, pulling us ahead 35-27.
The third quarter saw TH trying time and time again to attack our basket but the twin towers Joey and Hwee Ching absolutely destroyed any foreign invasive species trying to get into our paint. Joey truly showed up big today with a great under the basket play and cutting into the paint on the next possession to lay in another bucket for Eusoff! But no matter how many buckets our players score, Jin Wen matches them basket for basket, but hers are worth 3 POINTS. The captain came up clutch in the third with two back to back three pointers and everyone in the team knew what to do – move the ball until we can get it open into the waiting arms of the hottest shooter of the game! The end of the third saw fewer baskets going down as both teams played super solid defence and the score by the of the quarter was 47-36 to Eusoff.
No number of defenders can stop captain Jin Wen from scoring.
11 POINT LEAD. ONE MORE QUARTER TO HOLD ON TO BEFORE WE GET THE GOLD. Shi Yi says “leave this to me” as she slices through the TH defence, going past 3 defenders and lays in a tough shot. Already the fourth quarter but Long hands Lam still keeping up good defence, getting a piece of all of TH’s shots. Our ball movement was so super solid that 2 TH defenders got befuddled and clashed into each other and fell to the ground (hopefully they are okay, looked pretty bad). Our superior ball movement also led to the revival of the legendary SPLASH SISTERS Georgia and Jin Wen as they rained three pointers on TH! As the final few seconds ticked down, we can see the TH defence crumbling and Vera delivers the finishing blow with a quick turn in the low post and putting up a shot and gets the AND-1. By now, TH had already given up and just threw a scrappy attack as the final few seconds ticked away. “BORRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR” (that’s the sound of the buzzer) AND WE HAVE DONE IT AGAIN, THE BASKETBALL GIRLS HAVE CLINCHED THE GOLD AND ALSO SECURED OUR SPOT AS THE OVERALL CHAMPIONS! GOOD JOB GIRLS! 🙂
Your IHG 19/20 Basketball (F) Champions! Congratulations, ladies!
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