Basketball

RMIT University players celebrate their NUC Basketball championship on November 17 in HCM City. Photos of organisers

HÀ NỘI — RMIT and Tôn Đức Thắng were victorious at the first National University Championship basketball tournament, known as NUC Basketball, on Thursday night in HCM City.

RMIT University outscored the University of Transport and Communications 70-47 in the final of the men's tournament held at Việt Nam National University HCM City.

RMIT, which went undefeated in the tournament, jumped ahead and dominated the game from the beginning.

Jamie Martin, Tấn Khoa, Đình Huy and Minh Tính led the scoring for the team which surged to a 15-3 lead at the middle of the first quarter. Transport and Communications made an incredible scoring run to level the score at 19-19 at the end of the first quarter, but it was their only highlight of the game.

RMIT again set up the pace of the match in the next three quarters with Martin showing off his amazing skills. He was voted the tournament's Most Valuable Player with 19 points, 14 rebounds and 4 assists.

University of Pedagogy of Sports Hà Nội and Hoa Sen University shared third place.

Võ Mai Trúc Linh of Tôn Đức Thắng University (in blue) tries to defend a player of Hoa Sen University during the women's final. Linh was the MVP of the championship.

On the women's side, the final was a rematch between Tôn Đức Thắng and Hoa Sen universities, the two representatives of the South region.

Hoa Sen defeated Tôn Đức Thắng 49-34 in the final of the South region qualification but they failed to repeat that win in the national final on Thursday.

Both two teams played strong defence but it was Tôn Đức Thắng's players who were better in converting their opportunities into points. They took a lead of 14-11 after two quarters. It was 29-16 in the third quarter with Võ Mai Trúc Linh scoring on pick and rolls and Thanh Dừa's hitting open three-point shots.

Hoa Sen tried to fight back but could not narrow the gap.

Tôn Đức Thắng enjoyed sweet revenge, winning 34-30 to lift the trophy while Linh was named MVP.

Việt Nam National University HCM City's International University and Hà Nội National University of Education each tied for third place.

The winning teams grabbed a prize of VNĐ50 million (US$2,050).

The second and third-placed sides will received VNĐ30 million and VNĐ20 million, respectively.

The MVPs were awarded VNĐ5 million each.

The 2022 NUC Basketball was jointly organised by the MoET, Max Sports Entertainment Joint Stock Company and Vietcontent and Trading Joint Stock Company. VNS