Nanyang Technological University, Wednesday, 7 January 2009 – The mens basketball match between Singapore Polytechnic (SP) and Ngee Ann Polytechnic (NP) saw both cries of indignation and defeat. SP and NP faced off to an exhilarating battle and the audience were treated to a thrilling game. At the start, SP displayed more team coordination and was able to widen the gap between the two teams' scores. SP also showed more accuracy when it boiled down to shooting hoops. But NP, not backing down, excelled in their defence with numerous good steals and good “Box-Out” tactics.

NP focused on attacking and scoring and was initially the more aggressive of the two teams. This resulted in several fouls and SP was awarded quite a number of free throws. Perhaps in retaliation after a series of referee decisions going against them, SP forgot to play ball and started to endorse rough house tactics. The foul count started to rise and though NP had numerous opportunities in their free throws, they had wasted most of the chances.

The last quarter promises to be filled with numerous incidents. With NP trailing SP by eight points entering the last quarter, NP went all out to chase the game. In this process, they managed numerous steals, created countless turnovers to bring the score close to a nail-biting situation. Frustrated by NP’s domination, SP called for numerous timeouts with the coach giving several pep talks to turn the situation around but to no avail. The referees started to lose control of the match and players from both camps started bundling over each other with trips and elbows arriving at unnecessary places. In fact, at one stage, the NP coach, Vincent Koh was so incensed with the referee that he rushed onto the court to complain to the referee about some dubious elbowing done by the SP players. At the end of a tension-filled match, SP leads, 60-55.

Vincent Koh, coach for NP says, “In the end, it's not up to me to decide if the referee is right or wrong. My role is to teach my players to always have fair play. I will never send out the players who play dirty. I would rather lose by five points if my players go back with the conviction of fair sportsmanship.”

Faith Chua, a spectator from Republic Polytechnic adds, “Compared to Singapore Polytechnic, I would say that Ngee Ann Polytechnic had less teamwork. Actually, in the beginning, there were a lot of factors that discouraged Ngee Ann Polytechnic. The fact that they could rise up and catch up from the initial stage is already very commendable.”