Singapore Schools and AMK CC White win 2nd game in Milo Cup

By Lee Hwee Cheng

Singapore Basketball Centre, Wednesday, June 6, 2007 – The Red Sports Crew tripped down to Geylang East yesterday for more basketball action that has been taking place during the school break. We caught a couple of games in the Under-16 Boys’ group round robin of the 26th Milo Junior Championship 2007.

The tournament, more commonly known as the ‘Milo Cup’ or ‘Youth Cup’ for short, is organized by the Basketball Association of Singapore (BAS) with support from the Singapore Sports Council (SSC), and Milo – yes, our favourite childhood beverage other than that blackcurrant drink – has been the long-time sponsor of the annual event for the past 25 years in Singapore.

Aimed originally at promoting the sport and raising the standard of local youth basketball, and as a talent-scouting platform for the National Youth Team, the event offers, more importantly in the eyes of the ballers, more on-court competition apart from the inter-school tournaments. To these ballers, the opportunity to represent both their schools and their clubs at this age brings a sense of pride and glory.

This year, almost 900 ballers under the age of 18, from a total of 47 boys’ teams and 26 girls’ teams, will engage in 132 qualifying round robin matches played over 4 different venues before the knock-out stages in a tournament that spans 51 days.  Easily the biggest tournament outside of the inter-school leagues, it is no wonder why the ‘Milo Cup’ has gained a certain level of prestige amongst the ballers over the years.

The Red Sports Crew arrived at the games yesterday in time to catch the action going on in the middle of the group qualifying rounds.  In the first Group C game, Ang Mo Kio CC White beat Springfield Secondary School 53-31 in their second game of the season.

AMK had taken a 26-14 lead at half-time, but it was Springfield who sprung back (no pun intended) with an astounding 6-0 run within the first minute of the third quarter when they pulled a surprise on AMK with a full-court press tactic.  Startled and unable to think fast enough to react to the defense, AMK turned two over posessions straight from their baseline throw-in to Springfield’s Daryl (#7) and Chum Hao (#9).  Barely into the second minute of the quarter, Springfield had narrowed the lead to six at 20-26.

AMK’s coach called a timely time-out at this point, and his boys came back to break Springfield’s press successively for a 13-0 run.  Before the quarter was over, AMK had pulled away to 39-20.  Springfield, boosted by the early success on the defensive end, continued to work hard on the offensive court to catch up but with a weaker rebounding force in the paints and a less rounded offensive team, they just could not finish the moves and find the basket.  AMK went on to finish the third quarter with an 18-point lead at 41-23.

Springfield started the final quarter with another full-court defensive press and an early steal and basket, but found it harder to trap the opponents from then.  AMK  put in four easy baskets to pull ahead further at 49-25 before Springfield could find some scoring touches.  Two free throws and two fast breaks later, Springfield closed the gap slightly at 49-31 but that was all they could manage in the final minutes of the game.  AMK scored another two more baskets for the quarter, and finished the game 53-31 at full-time.

This is AMK CC White’s first win after losing 32-60 in their first game to WRS, while Springfield have lost two consecutive game, dropping the first one 28-82 to Teck Ghee CSC.

In the other Group B game taking place concurrently on Court Two, Singapore Schools continued their triple-digit scoring as they trounced Geylang Serai CSC 109-27.  They had won their first game 108-16 over T-Net Club @ Bukit Merah A.  Geylang Serai, on the other hand, had narrowly lost 60-64 to Tong Whye Temple in their first game.

Boasting an all-star squad selected from the recently concluded National ‘B’ Division Inter-school Tournament, Singapore Schools showed their prowess, despite having only come together and trained as a team for a few short weeks. They impressed with their relentless fast breaks, their sharper shooting from the field, and their untiring runs on the defensive end.

Editor’s note:  If you do recognize yourselves or any of your friends in these pictures, do drop us a note in the "Comments" section and we’ll update the captions accordingly.  Thanks!