Unable to stop the opponent's striker, the Vietnamese women's basketball team unfortunately lost to Malaysia
Having to play the third match within four days, the Vietnamese women's basketball team faced Malaysia on the morning of May 12. Coach Michael Olson's team played less than 24 hours after the historic victory over Thailand.
Malaysia is underestimated compared to Thai people, so fans have put great faith in a victory for Vietnamese girls. However, things did not go as expected.
The Malaysian team entered the game confidently with many accurate 3-pointers right in the first half. This caused the Vietnamese team's defense to be stretched to limit the influence of the pitchers.
After that, striker Kalaimathi Rajintiran, 1m85 tall, "turned on". The 33-year-old player freely roamed around in the near-basket area, exploding in the second half of the game. In the third and fourth quarters alone, Rajintiran had 8-10 FGs compared to only 2-7 FG in the first half (22 points, 12 rebounds all game).
Another statistic that shows the loss in bodybuilding and communication of Vietnamese players is rebound. Malaysia had 61 rebounds the whole game, including 25 offensive rebounds while Vietnam only had a total of 43 rebounds.
Having difficulty in defense, the Vietnamese basketball team tried to increase the tempo to force a change of direction in attack. Unfortunately, the tight schedule seems to have made Truong Thao My and his teammates not play as effectively as expected.
In addition, another point worth noting is that Vietnam Tel is not allowed to throw as many free throws as the match against Thailand. Today Thao My and teammates only have 13-21 FT compared to 27-33 FT. Stats have decreased in both quantity and effectiveness.
The 12-point difference was created by the Malaysian team in the third half, but the Vietnamese girls rose up strongly. The advantage of the opponent was only 3 points when entering the 4th half and was reduced to 1 point after the commendable effort of the duo Mailee - Tieu Duy (score 58-59).
Unfortunately, after that, many opportunities to rise up were missed. Malaysia responded with a series of 13-5 points to regain the game. It was still Tieu Duy who tried to score points with Thao Vy's two ecstatic balls, but this effort came quite late and could not help the Vietnamese team reverse the situation.
The final whistle sounded with a 76-72 victory for the Malaysian team. The Vietnamese women's basketball team received its second defeat in three matches. Both failures have a close difference, making the fans even more regretful.
Four different Vietnamese players scored over 12 points in this match including Nguyen Thi Tieu Duy (12 points, 5-11 FG), Mailee Jones (13 points, 3-6 3PT), Truong Thao Vy (13 points, 3 assists). , 2 steals) and Truong Thao My (18 points, 9 rebounds, 6 assists).
Losing to Malaysia, the Vietnamese women's basketball team will face many difficulties in competing for medals. To raise this hope, teachers and coaches Michael Olson need to beat the Philippines heavyweights in the match that takes place at 11am tomorrow (May 13).
Vietnam Tel will then not be allowed to stumble in any matches for the rest of the SEA Games, including the ov7i1 competition with many naturalized players from the host Cambodia.
