Singapore U-16 girls’ basketball team win first medal at regional youth level in over a decade

SINGAPORE – Starved of success for some time, Singapore basketball received a shot in the arm when the national Under-16 girls’ team won a silver medal in the South-east Asia Basketball Association (Seaba) qualifiers for the Fiba U-16 Women’s Asia Cup on May 18.

The Republic placed second out of five teams during the five-day tournament in Hanoi, Vietnam, the first time that a South-east Asian qualifying competition was held for the continental event.

They finished behind Indonesia, who won all four matches to clinch the sole qualification spot for the Fiba U-16 Women’s Asia Cup in Malaysia in September.

The last time Singapore won a medal in a regional youth basketball tournament was back in 2014, when the U-18 girls’ team bagged a silver at the Seaba U-18 Championship, the inaugural edition which saw only three teams taking part.

At the Thanh Tri Gymnasium last week, the Republic opened their campaign with a 71-61 defeat by Thailand, before beating Malaysia 63-46. After losing 81-51 to Indonesia, they bounced back with a 64-33 victory over Vietnam.

While Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand had identical records of two wins and two losses each, the Republic finished ahead of the other two teams based on their points difference in matches involving the three sides.

The team’s coach, Desmond Oh, a former national player who also turned out for the Singapore Slingers, said: “It’s actually a very, very good tournament for the girls. And I’m very proud of them for achieving a silver medal (with) the tremendous effort they put in.”

In preparation for this tournament, the girls juggled training with school work and National School Games (NSG) fixtures for two months.

They faced further challenges in Hanoi, when coach Oh, 38, had to return to Singapore ahead of the final game against the hosts on May 18 to attend his grandmother’s funeral.

Team captain Michelle Ayeni, a 1.75m power forward, said they were determined to win for Oh.

The 15-year-old, whose father is Nigerian and mother a Singaporean Chinese, said: “I think our team worked really hard these few months. We really gave it our all, and I think it really paid off when we got second.

“When coach Desmond left, we really felt for him... We understood why he had to go and instead of slowing down because of that, I think it brought out this fire in the team. We wanted to win more because of that and we wanted to make him and Singapore proud.

“We were really hoping, of course, to be champions for this. But I think getting placed is already a very great step forward, and we’ll just come back to Singapore and work on our weaknesses, and we’ll go back stronger next time.”

Michelle was also the team’s joint-top scorer with 63 points, along with another mixed-heritage player, 1.73m power forward and centre Elessa Emily, who has a Cameroonian father and Singaporean Indian mother.

Michelle, a Secondary 3 student at Raffles Girls’ School, added: “It was pretty challenging to cope with NSG and the training, and we still had schoolwork to do, but support came from all sides. It was amazing.

“Our parents were really supportive, sending us to training and games and in school, we had our classmates and teachers to help us catch up on schoolwork.”

In a statement, Basketball Association of Singapore (BAS) president Bob Tor thanked Sport Singapore for its “unwavering support in providing our youth with a strong training platform”.

He added: “We acknowledge the ActiveSG Basketball Academy for its dedicated coaching support and structured training programme, which have been instrumental in ensuring our players receive the highest quality preparation possible.”

The girls will take a short break before returning to the court at the end of May for the 2025 BAS Youth Cup, a tournament involving local teams.

Meanwhile, the Singapore U-16 boys’ team will be competing in the Seaba U-16 Championship from May 24 to 30 in the Philippines. This also serves as a qualifying tournament for the Fiba U-16 Asia Cup.