LAGUNA, Philippines: There would be no fairy-tale ending for Singapore’s netballers at the 30th SEA Games after they lost to defending champions Malaysia 48-42 on Monday (Dec 2).
In a hard-fought game at the Santa Rosa multi-purpose sports complex in Laguna, it was the Singaporeans who started the game on top as they looked quickest and fastest to every loose ball. Despite being pegged back by a couple of individual errors, they finished the quarter ahead 13-12.
Singapore plays Malaysia at the SEA Games 2019 netball final. (Photo: Matthew Mohan)
But the Malaysians were far from done.
Buoyed by a series of missed shots from Singapore, they fought their way back into the game and the match went into the break dead-even at 21-21.
The Malaysians found an extra gear in the third period and opened up a whopping ten point lead over their rivals to make it 40-30 with 15 minutes left to play.
While a spirited comeback by the Singapore side saw them cut the lead by as little as five points, the Malaysians would hold out for a well-deserved victory.
Singapore plays Malaysia at the SEA Games 2019 netball final. (Photo: Matthew Mohan)
Malaysia had beaten Singapore 54-49 in the round-robin match last Friday.
At the last edition of the Games, Singapore missed out on gold after losing to Malaysia 65-41 in the finals.
Follow Mediacorp’s coverage of the 30th SEA Games and get the widest Team Singapore coverage with four LIVE channels on Toggle. Go to toggle.sg/seagames2019 for details.
