Story by reader Ian Chew and photos by Ng Cheng Cong
Singapore Basketball Centre, Friday, 16 May – National U18 player Lim Shengyu (#13) may have top scored for his Hwa Chong Institution (HCI) team with 23 points, but it was their collective defense that shut down fellow semi finalist Victoria Junior College’s offense. HCI simply outscored, out-rebounded and outfought the VJ boys for a 76-53 win. The win catapulted the defending champions into a repeat A Division boys final of 2006 against Anderson Junior College, who also won their semi final game against Temasek Junior College.
Hwa Chong Institution showed their intent early by jumping to a 6-0 lead, with Shengyu scoring all 6 points. VJ’s point guard Loh Wanxin (#14) also showed some good shooting touches from beyond the arc, but the first quarter belonged to HCI. They took a 17-7 lead into the break.
HCI displayed their strength in depth when their players came off the bench to lead the team to a 37-19 first-half score. Both Shengyu and Chiam Hong Yao (#5), HCI’s point guard, scored 6 points apiece during this period to lead their team.
The fast tiring VJ team could only manage 10 points in the third quarter, The aggressive HCI defense restricted the VJ players to long distance attempts from beyond the 3-point line, but unfortunately for them, most of their shots fell far short. Hwa Chong had by this time wrapped up the game with 55-29 third quarter lead.
A controversial technical foul called on Hong Yao in the fourth quarter failed to derail the team however, and Hwa Chong went on to book a place in the final on 22 May (Thu) at the Toa Payoh Sports Hall.
Hwa Chong’s point guard Chiam Hong Yao attributed his team’s win to meticulous preparation.
Said Hong Yao: “We watched videos of the VJ team before the match and focused on shutting down their point guard (Wanxin). I think we did a pretty good job and the team (VJC) missed a lot of their attempts.”
As to the final, Hong Yao was confident but wary of the threat posed by Anderson Junior College at the same time. AJC beat Temasek Junior College 72-60 in the other semi final.
“This is the first time we are playing Anderson in the competition and we have to especially watch out for Yan Ming (#6), AJ’s key player,” he continued. Yan Ming top scored with 24 points for his team in the semi final game, including four 3-pointers.
But HCI will be facing a slight complication in their preparations for the final though. Two of their key players Lim Shengyu and Calvin Chia will be flying to Shanghai for an adidas Nations Camp from 18-24 May.
But Calvin was unflustered by the disruption.
“The trip may deprive us the chance of training with the team for the final, but I am confident our preparations over the past year have been adequate. I don’t think missing a few days of training will make much of a difference. Anyway, the camp is a chance in a lifetime!” he said.
The two boys will be flying back to Singapore from Shanghai for the match on 21 May (Wed) before flying back to Shanghai on 22 May (Thu) evening after the final. Looks like the boys will be in for an eventful week!
did anybody notice the face of Chester Leow(#11, white)’s face in one of the pics? it’s so funny.
Wow, that’s a really in-depth and lengthy analysis man.
Well, thanks a lot for taking such pains to discuss the game we played. Really valid and helpful points you’ve got there. Haha. 🙂
I’ll share your lengthy comment with my team and we’ll take in the points you made.
All the best to us in the finals tomorrow!! HAHAHAHA.
Thanks once again for going to such lengths to make the analysis.
yeah thanks alot (got milk?)
reali tot that it was a veri in depth analysis..
pin pointed out everything quite or almost acurrately..
thanks alot once again and will work in my area of weaknesses..
Thank you(got milk?) for the advices. I will work on my weaknesses.
match analysis of AJ vs TJ:
my opinion is from someone who has watched nearly a hundred live NCAA games and NBA games and spent two years under the tutelage of and discussing strategy with a former NCAA basketball player.
i do not know the names of most of the players on both teams but have concluded from the previous posts.
Why AJ won:
– AJ COACHING
– yanming’s shooting
– team mentality
Why TJ lost:
– little to no quality coaching
– lack of quality ball movement on the offense
– poor rotations on the perimeter and overall weak defense that was not able to adapt to the game.
– weixiong’s lack of a jump shot and his inability to create his own shot and shoot under defensive pressure
AJ’s Offense:
– AJ’s point guard ran the show surprisingly well, and the entire team moved the ball smoothly and confidently.
– Revolved around Yanming and Weixian
: weixian’s lack of athleticism and post moves were exposed in this match as he was often unable to create his usual shot attempts against the frequent double teams that the TJ team sent at him. He has soft but weak hands; translation: he can get the ball in the post, he just can’t hold on to it when pressured. (note: later in the match he exploited their aggressive play and questionable refereeing to set himself up for free throws which he easily knocked down)
: yanming’s shooting, athletic and high standing vertical on jump shot enough said.
– good movement and positioning off-the-ball along the baseline which allowed them to set themselves up for shots in areas they were comfortable with or dimes to other open teammates.
– sharp snappy perimeter passes, especially kickouts from the low post. these forced weixiong to constantly overwork himself and thus tired him out
– solid and aggressive and relatively uncontested drives to the hoop.
– solid free throw shooting
AJ’s defense:
– focused on denying the ball in the post areas, confidently put weixian up against any of TJ’s bigs 1-on-1.
– very quick rotations along the perimeter: weixiong was unable to create and was constantly pressured when he even stepped near the 3pt line.
– very physical: discouraged TJ players from posting up or even venturing into the post. limited zhihao’s drives by keeping him out in the perimeter and forcing to work to even approach the painted area.
– smart substitutions.
– simple but efficient and more than enough to stop TJ’s
TJ’s offense:
– relied entirely on point guard, weixiong to create offensive opportunities, who had trouble creating any offense with his teammates either running pell-mell or standing around, thus the offense stagnated.
– zhihao is the only player on this team who is capable of creating his own shot unfortunately he is an extremely streaky shooter, his strength lies in his agility and speed and ability to get to the rim and finish, however in this match was unable to get into a flow.
– any semblance of low position scoring or ball movement was NON-existent despite the many tall players on the floor and bench.
– many of TJ’s points came from desperation shots and drives
– very questionable shot selection. with the exception of zhihao and weixiong, the team relied solely on their weak midrange and perimeter shooting to attempt to bomb themselves back in the game.
TJ defense:
– i’m tempted to not even go here but i have to
– the usual zhihao – weixiong tandem was not in place, thus the defense was entirely thrown off as other players were unable to provide the usual stifling perimeter defense that is usually present. the absence of the long-armed defense and smart rotations of the TJ backcourt, hurt their generation of fast-break points. ALSO because their guards often tend to gamble alot on defense, the result was easy shots or drives for the smart play of the AJ guards.
– to TJ’s credit, they were able to hold weixian down BUT their lack of the physicality of their bigs was painful to watch as AJ guards simply sliced up the weak interior (and inferior) TJ defense.
– however, if the defensive player award was to given out based on this match alone, it would have to go to zhihao from TJ because of his relentless digging in the low post and strong rebounds and good anticipation when matched up against slower post players.
General overview:
Right from the tipoff, the entire AJ team came in and played with the right mentality and confidence. It was obvious that they were very well prepared for this match, as their offensive execution and the subsequent break down of TJ’s already spotty zone defense proven to be the key to their trashing of the TJ team. More on this later.
They were thoroughly unshaken by any attempt at a comeback by TJ on various counts, props to yanming from the AJ side with THE most amazing shooting display i have seen in A division basketball this year. The AJ team, especially yanming, were unintimidated by the star players of the other team. Even in the 4th quater when the Zhihao moved back to his original position beside weixiong to give TJ back their “imba” backcourt, the AJ team played brilliant and physical defense to force these players out of their comfort zone, and thus stymied the entire TJ offense. I have no doubt that even without yanming’s shots falling, the AJ team would have stepped up to fill up the scoring void, and they did, whenever they had a good look it was fired into the rim.
What the TJ team suffered most from was the lack of proper preparation and lack of decent role players and poor coaching or the lack of coaching. true they did stop weixian, but what about YANMING. i was extremely surprised and shocked when yanming and co. started knocking down their shots and pulling away, that the coaches on the TJ bench were simply muttering among themselves and saying “su le” which very loosely translated means “well this sucks, i guess we lost the match” and this was in the FIRST QUARTER. um hello, you are the coaches, CALL A TIMEOUT! make adjustments! if yanming is on fire, play a box and 1! when trying to make a run play a full court pressure defense! interact with your bench!
in stark contrast the AJ coach call timely timeouts whenever TJ looked like they were going on a run and made very good substitutions (an example of this was: his rotation between a bigger more physical AJ player whenever a defensive stop was needed, and a more offensively adept player whenever they needed to generate points. what’s more during timeouts he was firm and resolute with his commands to his team, such as: deny weixiong his shot and make him work for his passes. His confidence and knowledge commanded respect from his team, who executed his simple plays to near perfection. His charisma even transcended to his bench where each player was confident but his role on the team when they got on the floor.
it may seem that i’m siding AJ, but in all honestly the whole match i was praying for TJ to go on a huge run to cut into AJ’s lead. this is not to discount the efforts on both teams who were, i admit, playing their hearts out and was a very very entertaining match in its entirety.
individual observations:
weixian: was shaken out of his usual game, but later made quick and smart passes to open teammates and had smart moves to draw moves and get his points from the free throw line. played tough but rudimentary defense. adjustments he could make for the finals is to start the ball in the high post or further out on the baseline, where he can use his height and shooting touch to get his shot off over opponents or drive to the rim. will have trouble once again on offense and defense with the imposing physical presence of HCI’s bigs.
yanming: has good standing vertical and thus great elevation on his jump shot and his able to get it off against any defender because of the height of his release and also because he pulls it back very quickly above his head. individually has very good physical defense but will need to make faster and quicker rotations along the perimeter to help his teammates handle HCI’s big guards. look for HCI to man up on him and knock him around if his jumper starts falling again.
zhihao: very good ball handling, can get to the rim at will, but is limited by his lack of stamina. very good at creating his own shot but his jumper mechanics are weak and lacks consistency because of his low release point and surprisingly relatively slow release and also the lack of spin in his shot. however, VERY fast and agile, near impossible to stop if he gets the jumper going.
weixiong: THE BEST PASSING point guard in the league, nobody else in the A division comes close to his vision on the floor and the chemistry between him and zhihao is beautiful to watch. (especially on the fast break, a result of from their “smart” defensive gambles) overall weixiong’s perimeter defense along with zhihao’s is the key to TJ’s success and their pass successes because only they are able to adequately play such defense and get away with it. of course as this match as proven, that only works against weaker teams who are unprepared for their quickness. weixiong’s weakness is his lack of athleticism or more specifically his inability to get to the rim at will and finish; usually he is able to make up for it with quick and smart ball handling, but because he is not ambidextrous it makes it easier for opponents to handle his drives. weixiong’s standstill shooting is very impressive even for a point guard and his height allows him to get it off most of the time above standing defenders. however, at times his hesitancy to take his shot allows defenders to get a hand up and force alter his shot thus exposing his lack of a jump shot.
best wishes to all A division ballers, it has been a very entertaining season with lots of hustle from many teams to make up for the lack of pure talent. and i mean that in the best way ever.
match analysis of AJ vs TJ:
my opinion is from someone who has watched nearly a hundred live NCAA games and NBA games and spent two years under the tutelage of and discussing strategy with a former NCAA basketball player.
i do not know the names of most of the players on both teams but have concluded from the previous posts.
Why AJ won:
– AJ COACHING
– yanming’s shooting
– team mentality
Why TJ lost:
– little to no quality coaching
– lack of quality ball movement on the offense
– poor rotations on the perimeter and overall weak defense that was not able to adapt to the game.
– weixiong’s lack of a jump shot and his inability to create his own shot and shoot under defensive pressure
AJ’s Offense:
– AJ’s point guard ran the show surprisingly well, and the entire team moved the ball smoothly and confidently.
– Revolved around Yanming and Weixian
: weixian’s lack of athleticism and post moves were exposed in this match as he was often unable to create his usual shot attempts against the frequent double teams that the TJ team sent at him. He has soft but weak hands; translation: he can get the ball in the post, he just can’t hold on to it when pressured. (note: later in the match he exploited their aggressive play and questionable refereeing to set himself up for free throws which he easily knocked down)
: yanming’s shooting, athletic and high standing vertical on jump shot enough said.
– good movement and positioning off-the-ball along the baseline which allowed them to set themselves up for shots in areas they were comfortable with or dimes to other open teammates.
– sharp snappy perimeter passes, especially kickouts from the low post.
– solid and aggressive and relatively uncontested drives to the hoop.
– solid free throw shooting
AJ’s defense:
– focused on denying the ball in the post areas, confidently put weixian up against any of TJ’s bigs 1-on-1.
– very quick rotations along the perimeter: weixiong was unable to create and was constantly pressured when he even stepped near the 3pt line.
– very physical: discouraged TJ players from posting up or even venturing into the post. limited zhihao’s drives by keeping him out in the perimeter and forcing to work to even approach the painted area.
– smart substitutions.
– simple but efficient and more than enough to stop TJ’s
TJ’s offense:
– relied entirely on point guard, weixiong to create offensive opportunities, who had trouble creating any offense with his teammates either running pell-mell or standing around, thus the offense stagnated.
– zhihao is the only player on this team who is capable of creating his own shot unfortunately he is an extremely streaky shooter, his strength lies in his agility and speed and ability to get to the rim and finish, however in this match was unable to get into a flow.
– any semblance of low position scoring or ball movement was NON-existent despite the many tall players on the floor and bench.
– many of TJ’s points came from desperation shots and drives
– very questionable shot selection. with the exception of zhihao and weixiong, the team relied solely on their weak midrange and perimeter shooting to attempt to bomb themselves back in the game.
TJ defense:
– i’m tempted to not even go here but i have to
– the usual zhihao – weixiong tandem was not in place, thus the defense was entirely thrown off as other players were unable to provide the usual stifling perimeter defense that is usually present. the absence of the long-armed defense and smart rotations of the TJ backcourt, hurt their generation of fast-break points. ALSO because their guards often tend to gamble alot on defense, the result was easy shots or drives for the smart play of the AJ guards.
– to TJ’s credit, they were able to hold weixian down BUT their lack of the physicality of their bigs was painful to watch as AJ guards simply sliced up the weak interior (and inferior) TJ defense.
– however, if the defensive player award was to given out based on this match alone, it would have to go to zhihao from TJ because of his relentless digging in the low post and strong rebounds and good anticipation when matched up against slower post players.
General overview:
Right from the tipoff, the entire AJ team came in and played with the right mentality and confidence. It was obvious that they were very well prepared for this match, as their offensive execution and the subsequent break down of TJ’s already spotty zone defense proven to be the key to their trashing of the TJ team. More on this later.
They were thoroughly unshaken by any attempt at a comeback by TJ on various counts, props to yanming from the AJ side with THE most amazing shooting display i have seen in A division basketball this year. The AJ team, especially yanming, were unintimidated by the star players of the other team. Even in the 4th quater when the Zhihao moved back to his original position beside weixiong to give TJ back their “imba” backcourt, the AJ team played brilliant and physical defense to force these players out of their comfort zone, and thus stymied the entire TJ offense. I have no doubt that even without yanming’s shots falling, the AJ team would have stepped up to fill up the scoring void, and they did, whenever they had a good look it was fired into the rim.
What the TJ team suffered most from was the lack of proper preparation and lack of decent role players and poor coaching or the lack of coaching. true they did stop weixian, but what about YANMING. i was extremely surprised and shocked when yanming and co. started knocking down their shots and pulling away, that the coaches on the TJ bench were simply muttering among themselves and saying “su le” which very loosely translated means “well this sucks, i guess we lost the match” and this was in the FIRST QUARTER. um hello, you are the coaches, CALL A TIMEOUT! make adjustments! if yanming is on fire, play a box and 1! when trying to make a run play a full court pressure defense! interact with your bench!
in stark contrast the AJ coach call timely timeouts whenever TJ looked like they were going on a run and made very good substitutions (an example of this was: his rotation between a bigger more physical AJ player whenever a defensive stop was needed, and a more offensively adept player whenever they needed to generate points. what’s more during timeouts he was firm and resolute with his commands to his team, such as: deny weixiong his shot and make him work for his passes. His confidence and knowledge commanded respect from his team, who executed his simple plays to near perfection. His charisma even transcended to his bench where each player was confident but his role on the team when they got on the floor.
it may seem that i’m siding AJ, but in all honestly the whole match i was praying for TJ to go on a huge run to cut into AJ’s lead. this is not to discount the efforts on both teams who were, i admit, playing their hearts out
yup. he’s a PRC, but he is PR!
If i’m not wrong zhihao is PRC right? so he can’t be selected. Not sure about wanxin though.
It’s a pity that wanxin and zhihao wasnt selected for the combine school team!