S. Korea's Yongsan clinch NBA Rising Stars Invitational boys' title; Kyoto Seika win girls' crown
But the South Korean side devised a strategy to overcome the height disadvantage and won 97-48 in front of the 1,100-capacity crowd to take home the title.
Through an interpreter, tournament Most Valuable Player, 1.94m power forward Kim Min-gi said of their win: 'I'm incredibly happy, this is going to be a memory that's just going to be unforgettable for the rest of my life.
'The night before, we had a look at the Chinese team, and saw that they were really tall. So we built a game plan based off that to make sure that we were going to tackle them well during the game.
'And also the most important thing was to have that fight, because we had nothing to lose.'
Yongsan had beaten Thailand's Assumption College Thonburi 84-28 and the Philippines' National University Nazareth School 84-79 in the round-robin group stage, before overcoming Japan's Fukuoka University Ohori Senior High School 75-65 in the semi-finals.
Despite their height disadvantage in the final – Tsinghua's players had looked about half a head taller than Yongsan's – the South Korean side flew out of the blocks and finished the first quarter 30-14.
Making use of their agility and precise shooting, Yongsan scored 12 three-pointers out of 21 attempts by half-time.
The Chinese had looked sluggish and were not able to capture rebounds, allowing easy turnovers for their opponents.
A change of tactics in the third (16-9) and fourth (19-15) periods saw Yongsan collect fewer points but they managed to see the game out 97-48.
Kim, 17, who scored a match-high 25 points, added: 'This means a lot to me personally, and I've never expected something like this, and this was for sure to be great groundwork to my career in the future.
'We don't have a lot of NBA-related tournaments in Asia, and to win the MVP on top of that, I've nothing but good things to say about this tournament.'
Yongsan coach Lee Sae-bum said: 'I thought it was important that this was going to be a great platform for the kids to strive for a challenge, to really go for those victories and learn a lot.'
Kyoto Seika Gakuen High School's Ngalula Liya Mukuna scored a match high 30 points to help her team win the inaugural title.
ST PHOTO: GIN TAY
In the girls' final, Japan's Kyoto Seika Gakuen Senior High School thrashed South Korea's Onyang Girls' High School 109-40.
Their dominance was prevalent throughout as Congolese centre Ngalula Liya Mukuna scored a match-high 30 points and captured 27 rebounds.
She said via an interpreter: 'Early on, we were nervous as a team, but also we have strong hearts.
'We grew in confidence as the game wore on and for us, it's always about rebounding and hustling the loose ball.
'I want to keep improving, especially on my drives and shooting free throws, so I will keep working hard.'
Her coach Tsunayoshi Yamamoto added: 'It was very humbling and this is actually our first time as Kyoto Seika basketball team to play outside of Japan and be involved in this kind of tournament.
'Looking at the other teams, especially Korea, China, Australia. They're tall and physical, so we weren't confident at all early on, but one game at a time, one win at a time, we raised our confidence.'
The NBA Rising Stars Invitational is the league's first regional high school tournament, with the inaugural edition featuring 12 Under-18 teams in each gender category from 11 countries across Asia-Pacific.
Singapore was represented by Anglo-Chinese Junior College and United World College Dover in the boys' category, but both did not make it out of the group stage.
Hwa Chong Institution's girls had beaten Malaysia's Hin Hua High School 69-63 in their opening game but also did not advance to the knockout rounds.
Melvyn Teoh is a sports journalist at The Straits Times.
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