Nanyang Technological University, Tuesday, 6 January 2009 – Hosts Nanyang Technological University (NTU) beat Singapore Management University (SMU) 82-49 in their opening Inter-Varsity Polytechnic (IVP) Group B men’s basketball match on Tuesday evening.

The huge margin of victory was only made in the final quarter when NTU staged a 20-2 rally for much of that period with their superior fitness and more incisive breakaways just as the SMU cagers were physically worn out.

After a close first half where the home side just edged the visitors 30-25, the former thought they had seized control of the match after scoring eight points without response midway in the third quarter.

That prompted SMU coach Chen Shang Long to call for a timeout for his side. Whatever he said at that time fired up guard Victor Tan as the latter took control of the remainder of the quarter and kept his side in contention heading into the final period.

He was everywhere on the court as he blocked out marauding NTU attacks and single-handedly took on his markers at the other end, defying their physical challenges to set up lay-up after another.

By the time the buzzer sounded to signal the end of the third quarter, Tan had scored 11 points in that period alone to give SMU a glimmer of hope for an upset.

It seemed like he would carry on where he left off when he began the final quarter with another two-pointer to bring his personally tally of the night to 21.

That was to be his final points of the game as the hosts took the game to his fast-tiring side as they took advantage of every turnover made to widen the gap with every passing second.

Try as he did to repeat his third-quarter performance, the fatigue showed when he missed subsequent attempts, including those from the free-throw line, and was subsequently subbed out of the match with 1:15 remaining.

In the post-match interview, Tan played down his third-quarter performance and paid tribute to his teammates for matching their more-illustrious opponents for much of the game.

“Although this was the first time we played as a team after a short preparation time, we showed in the first three quarters we were able to bond as a unit,” he said.

 
“We had teamwork in defence, kept encouraging one another throughout and stuck to our gameplan to close down on the NTU centres that were their main strengths.  

“As we were more defensive, we created a lot of pressure for NTU to force them into turnovers and catch them during their transitions.

“Even the forwards worked hard in defence to get the rebounds to compensate for the shortfall in talent against our opponents. 

“During the third quarter timeout, the coach told us to focus at reducing the gap by at most 15 points.

“We knew that we would have a good fighting chance if we kept the deficit down. The all-round solid defence at the back gave us more confidence to take our chances in attack.”

He admitted fatigue left unable to sustain their determined performances earlier in the last period but there was no shame in giving as good as they got.

“We lost out in term of mental gameplay experience and fitness which particularly showed in the last quarter as we tired.

“But we can say we put up a tough fight and learn lessons from this to hopefully fight our way into the last four.”