‘So humiliating and traumatic!’: Yali High School from China crushes Nanyang Polytechnic with staggering 110-14 score

SINGAPORE: A Nanyang Polytechnic (NYP) basketball team suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of a team from a high school in China at an NBA Rising Stars invitational match, managing just 14 points against their opponents’ 110.

The match, which took place at the OCBC Arena on Tuesday (23 June), saw Yali High School from Changsha in China’s Hunan Province dominate from start to finish, recording a 96-point victory in one of the first games of the tournament.

The match was one of the first games played in this year’s NBA Rising Stars tournament, an initiative linked to the National Basketball Association (NBA) in the United States. Taking place between June 23 and 28, the tournament is billed as the NBA’s premier youth basketball tournament in the Asia-Pacific and brings together school teams from across the region.

The gulf in performance between the two sides was reflected in the individual statistics.

Every single player of the seven who played for the Yali High School team scored at least a dozen points, leading to their massive victory. The team’s highest scorer finished with 21 points, while even the lowest-scoring member of the Chinese side contributed 12 points.

In contrast, only three out of the ten NYP players registered on the scoresheet managed to score any points at all. One player scored eight points, another added five, while a third contributed a single point. The remaining seven players did not land a single shot.

Singaporeans reacting to NYP’s performance online said the crushing defeat must have felt “extremely brutal,” with some adding that the Singapore players were probably left “humiliated” and “traumatised”.

Many described the defeat as difficult to watch and empathised with the players who had to endure the one-sided contest.

“Feel sorry for the girls, that’s a really humiliating result,” wrote one commenter.

Another said the experience must have been “deeply traumatic and hopelessly painful”, arguing that basketball can be particularly unforgiving when there is a large disparity in physical attributes and skill levels between teams.

Others said they could not imagine being on the receiving end of such a heavy loss. “Ngl I’ll pack up and go home halfway man, that’s just demoralising,” one commenter remarked, while another said, “I’ll legit cry if I’m the player.”

Not everyone viewed the result negatively, however. Some social media users argued that competing against stronger opposition is an important part of development and that defeats can offer valuable lessons.

“Yep. It’s reality. And that’s OK. Experience matters,” one commenter wrote.

Others pointed to the physical demands of basketball, noting that height and athleticism often play a significant role in determining success on the court.

“Yeah, well, basketball is one of those sports where talent — in the form of height in this case — makes a big difference. If you’re too short (<1.7m), it’s probably wiser to pick another arena to compete in,” one netizen commented.

Several netizens also noted that NYP was not the only Singapore team to struggle against overseas competition.

One commenter pointed out that Hwa Chong Institution’s boys’ team had also suffered a heavy defeat against a school team from the Philippines, suggesting that the results reflected broader differences in training standards and talent pools across the region.

“HCI boys team got thrashed by a Filipino school team yesterday, too. Good experience for our local school teams, but there is a huge disparity in terms of skills, training and talent when compared to our Asian counterparts. SG school teams are more likely to get trashed badly by the other participating schools,” the commenter wrote.

Despite the disappointment, some Singaporeans urged people not to be overly critical of the NYP players, stressing that they are still students competing against some of the strongest youth teams in the region.

“Darn. These are only students, and our local team were flattened in the match. I just hope this loss does not discourage the Nanyang Poly team from playing basketball,” one commenter said.

The NBA Rising Stars Invitational continues throughout the week, with teams from across the Asia-Pacific region competing at the OCBC Arena until June 28.