XI'AN, Oct. 15 (Xinhua) -- The Singapore national basketball team left Xi'an after finishing its training session in the hometown of the Terracotta Warriors and Horses.
Although the southeast Asian side lost to the Xi'an team 107-92 in its last friendly game during the period, both were satisfied with the result.
Singapore doesn't have professional players in the squad. "We have lawyers and entrepreneurs in our team. We came to China for preparing the upcoming 2019 Southeast Asia Games which will be held in Manila," said team Singapore's head coach Hsu Tung Ching.
In addition to Team Xi'an, the Singapore team also played against the youth side of Shaanxi Province and the Northwestern Polytechnical University team during its tour in China.
"We don't have many proper warm-up rivals in Southeast Asia. That's why we choose China as our destination in the training period. During the week, we have learned many things, establishing confidence ahead of the Southeast Asian Games," Hsu added.
Team Xi'an is the only team that defeated Singapore during its China tour. Just like the Singapore team, the players of the Shaanxi provincial basketball league leader are all amateurs. Jia Xiaoke of Xi'an pocketed 25 points against Singapore, leading this newly-established team to the win.
"It's a tough game. We are a little nervous in the first quarter. Fortunately, we got used to Singapore's play and found our pace in the second half," said the 36-year-old former basketballer of the Xi'an-based Northwest University.
Jia told Xinhua that the victory would help them play better in the second period of the year's Shaanxi Basketball League.
"Mr. Hsu and I had known each other when we were players. We are old friends, so when talking about his preparation plan, I invited him and his team to come to Xi'an," said Wang Libin, president of the Shaanxi Basketball Association.
"International basketball exchanges like this can not only bring improvement to our newborn Shaanxi provincial side, but also make basketball more popular here. We'd like to host more international basketball games in the future," Wang said.
