Coach Sze Yuin to gauge cagers at 12-day Taiwan tour
PETALING JAYA: National coach Yoong Sze Yuin will assess her players in the 12-day Taiwan tour before finalising the squad to defend the women’s basketball gold at next month’s Kuala Lumpur SEA Games.
The 15-player team will leave for the tour today. As only 12 are allowed in each team at the Aug 19-30 Games, Sze Yuin has to drop three players.
Of the 15, 10 of them – Wong Mei Chyn, Pang Hui Pin, Chong Yin Yin, Saw Wei Yin, Nur Izzati Yaakob, Magdelene Low, R. Kalaimathi, Ng Shi Yeng, Yap Fook Yee and Eugene Ting – were in the team that won gold at the 2015 Singapore Games. They are expected to retain their spots.
Forward Tai Chia Qian, who played a significant role in Malaysia’s triumph at the Maba
- International Invitation Cham pionships last month, will also like- ly make the team.
That leaves four players – Ooi Poh Yee, Hiew Ky Lie, Wong Sze Qian and Ng Mei Kuan – to battle it out for the last remaining place.
And Sze Yuin wants the four to prove their worth during their Taiwan tour.
“The trip to Taiwan is a chance for me to see what the other four can do under pressure during tournaments,” said Sze Yuin.
“It’s important for the players to play well to gain the self-confidence needed to defend the gold at the Games.”
In Taipei, Malaysia will first play three friendly matches against two club sides and the Taiwanese national team.
After that they will compete in the BLIA Cup, an invitational tournament in Kaohsiung from July 25-30.
Malaysia are in Group A with Vanguard University of the United States, Japan’s Nagoya Gakuin University and Fo Guang University of Taiwan.
Group B consists of the National Taiwan Normal University, China’s Tsinghua University, McMaster University of Canada and France’s University of Lyon.