Engineering Faculty (ENG) defeated School of Business (BIZ) 44-39 in this year’s IFG Men’s Basketball Final on September 19th, claiming their third consecutive championship titles in three years, 2011, 2012 and 2013. This three-peat proudly stands alone in IFG history. It was also the third time these two teams battle for the men’s basketball champion in the past four years. The clash between these two basketball powerhouses made for a dramatic and exciting game that was nothing less than a feast for eyes.
By the end of the first quarter, ENG led comfortably 15-7, clearly more geared up and better prepared. BIZ’s offense offered little threat in the face of ENG’s stronger and more physical defence.
ENG went on with an even more physical approach early on during the second quarter with greater efforts in sticking to their opponents and guarding the ball handler. There was no change in score until seven minutes into the quarter, when ENG’s No. 7 sunk a three-pointer and gave ENG a double-digit lead.
BIZ’s team were more undersized with just one tall center player, No. 15 Thomas. On the other hand ENG were able to rotate several equally sized center players to counterattack. Thomas is one of the most elite and skilful centers IFG has ever seen, which shouldn’t come as a surprise as he is also the key center player for the NUS basketball team. Since the preliminary round, he exerted a dominant presence in the paint area and was able to protect the rim, block shots and grab rebounds with very high efficiency. On the offensive end, with his post-passing abilities and court vision, he controlled and assisted the whole BIZ team to score, that is, if he didn’t choose to use his size and footwork to score himself.
However, in this game, Thomas was not having his night. ENG went very tough in defence and countered Thomas with both physicality and strategies. ENG’s excellent efforts in pursuing ball screens and rotations made it almost impossible for Thomas to get the ball in a low post position. Most of time, if the ball was able to bypass several defenders and go to his hands, he would be initiating the offence near the three-point line. And if he chose to post up, nearby ENG players would quickly double team or even triple team to contain his post moves. When he chose to post-pass the ball to his teammates on the weak side, his passes would be tipped and stolen, resulting in fast breaks, as ENG players did an exceptional job anticipating his pass. But the fatal blow to Thomas that night would be his free throws. ENG’s No.8, No 35, and No. 55 took turns to guard Thomas and on a number of occasions resorted to fouling Thomas in order to stop him. However, these fouls paid off big time, as Thomas was not converting points from his free throws. The BIZ star just could not get into his stride.
Moreover, Thomas was the only center playing in BIZ while ENG had quite a number of centers and big forwards. In order to counter ENG’s size, Thomas was only substituted fewer than three times in this 40 minute showdown, which wore him down considerably and affected his offensive performance.
After the first half, ENG pulled away from BIZ with a commanding 23-13 lead. At this point, most people were prepared to call it a game and hand the trophy to ENG, if not for the single-handed effort from BIZ’s No. 11 player, Xiangyu. Another NUS team player on BIZ’s team, Xiangyu was not showing well in the first half. When the third quarter first started, ENG were ready to put the nail to BIZ’s coffin by beefing up their already very physical game. Fuelled by the 10 points lead, ENG players increased their defensive intensity.
It was this pressurized environment that brought out the best in Xiangyu. He first drove to the rim and finished with a layup plus a foul. Then he hit a big shot from the three-point line, penetrated into the teeth of ENG defence to score with a number of tough layups plus fouls. He went into Big Head mode and took over the third quarter. In less than eight minutes, he scored 14 points consecutively. He was just unstoppable, scoring 14 out of his team’s 18 points in that quarter. This has to be one of the most sensational scoring performances in IFG history.
ENG would not even be able to clinch a 32-31, one point lead if not for ENG’s captain, Lu’s crucial two three-pointers in the final seconds of the third quarter.
BIZ was not done yet. Barely 45 seconds had passed in the final quarter when BIZ executed a brilliant three-pointer play and completed their huge comeback. 34-32! Now that BIZ had their first lead of the night, timeout was called by ENG.
ENG had to respond to BIZ’s comeback and made the necessary tactical switch to break their opponent’s rhythm. ENG put their No. 3 to guard BIZ’s point guard No. 7 to wreak havoc in BIZ’s offence. This proved to be an effective move. ENG’s No. 3 is a typical high energy player who is strong and athletic. His physical defence made it very uncomfortable for the BIZ No. 7 to dribble or pass the ball, resulting in several clutch turnovers.
In the meantime, ENG ran effective screen-and-rolls, which were their bread and butter, and passed the ball around the court to split and wear down BIZ’s defence. ENG played unselfishly: doing pump fakes and making BIZ players chase the ball around, and patiently waiting for the easy baskets and easy shots. ENG scored eight points straight and effectively iced BIZ’s momentum at 40-34.
In the final minutes, ENG No.3 guard led an amazing fast break, laying it up and in from coast to coast, 42-34. In the last few crucial possessions, ENG rotated the ball patiently and executed their offence to exhaust every last second they could, giving away only one free throw. BIZ did not choose to foul in the final seconds. This thrilling match ended at 44-39.
To any basketball fan, the level of skill and competitiveness displayed on that Mid-Autumn Night was nothing less than poetic.
“The score is 0-0 until the final whistle,” said ENG’s Captain, Scott Lu (No. 2), who hit several clutch three points and called a decisive time-out when BIZ got their first lead of the night in the early fourth quarter and thus turned the game around. He also talked about how he felt about BIZ’s remarkable recovery in the third quarter, “To be honest, I was quite shocked and felt a bit uneasy. So I called a timeout. I trust my teammates will put through, and we will take it one defensive play at a time. And that is what happened.”
Ivan Kovacev is an exchange student from the University of Zagreb in Croatia. He was on the BIZ team roster wearing No. 4 jersey. A veteran who has played semi-professionally in Croatia, he performed consistently through the game, putting enormous pressure on ENG on both ends of the floor with his explosiveness and court reading ability. After the match, he spoke highly of the level of competitiveness of NUS basketball, “I am really impressed with the level of basketball playing in NUS. They play really well.” He remarked about his teammate Xiangyu (BIZ No.11) who basically kept ENG within reach all by himself, “I think he was great! In the second half, he was setting the pace, running fast break, doing the defence; he is the main reason we managed to get the lead eventually!”
After the match, he freshened up and brought his laptop to the Utown Starbucks. He and his fellow European exchange students crowded around one table. They were just about to catch the FIBA Eurobasket Semi-Final match between his home country, Croatia, and Ukraine. While waiting for the match to start, a much chilled Ivan mused about the whole IFG experience and commented, “I think nobody expected a close game after the first quarter, but we managed to improve our defence and made them work for the win until the final buzzer. I really enjoyed playing with all guys on the team. I think we did a really good job throughout the tournament, and congrats to the engineering team for the win!”