At last! Revenge served cold!
Well, I wouldn't exactly call it revenge because we weren't going for the win in our last meeting, but it sounded like a great way to start the report. Anyway, we beat Lebanon U21 by 16 points to make it 1-1 against them this season. Not like it matters, but at least we prevented them from sweeping us.
We continued to be hit by the GS bug as we found ourselves short on serviceable bigmen again, despite already having 5 (if we don't count utilityman Fong Kum Hui) in the team. Hence I am once again very glad that our U21 pool is deep enough that I managed to dig up Tay Shun Siong, who was ready to battle. He performed admirably in his debut with 13 points and 9 rebounds. His aggressiveness on the offensive post saw him draw some fouls, as well as grabbing a game high 5 offensive rebounds. His partner in the post, Chua How Feng, refused to be outdone, and posted an all-round performance with 16 points, 16 rebounds, 5 assists and 6 blocks. It was a career night for him at the defensive end, as he has only ever blocked that many times once, and even then, it was a scrimmage where he played 48 minutes. His 16 rebounds also meant he is only the 5th Singaporean player to break 300 rebounds for the U21, leapfrogging Toh Chun Yao to take 5th place in the all-time rebound standings. With 2 games left, how high up the rankings can he climb?
Equally impressive on the defensive end was Mike Gomboting, who picked up his first start. He finished the game with 9 points, 6 assists, 3 rebounds and 3 steals. Although he just shot 31% from field, but his willingness to switch up his game and set up his teammates gave him an impressive +/- of +20. The only one to top that was Ethan bin Intiang, who hit a game high 24 points off 63% shooting. Last of all, Ang An Da continued to be the heart of the offense, with an impressive statline of 19 points and 8 assists, hitting 64% of his shots from field.
I should say, our defense really carried us today. However we might want to learn how to reduce our mistakes, as we had quite a number of silly turnovers.
We shall face goliath Hong Kong U21 next. They are clear frontrunners to finish 1-2 alongside Philippines U21, so don't bank on us getting anything out of the game. Setting sights on our neighhours, Malaysia U21, would be a more realistic target.