Story and photos by Lai Jun Wei/Red Sports.
Singapore Basketball Centre, Tuesday, August 12 , 2008 – There were shouts, protests and strong reactions at this game. No, not from the players on the court, but from the bench and supporters. After the saga involving Hwa Chong Institution and Woodlands Ring Secondary, I decided to go down personally to shoot some C Division basketball. In one of the final matches of the day, the Singapore Chinese Girls’ School beat Anglican High 46-23 in another controversial quarter-final match.
The game started off at a relatively slow pace, with both teams sinking just a few shots. It seemed like it might be a close fight between these two relatively strong basketball teams and the quarter ended 6-4 in favour of SCGS. Alana (SCGS, #10) contributed all six points for her team.
Things began to heat up in the second quarter as SCGS went on the offensive. Both teams asserted themselves on court, with Anglican High employing several good defensive tactics. But as play went on, the AHS coach and supporters began to call out fouls committed by the SCGS players which the referee did not call.
The situation worsened as even blatant fouls were left unnoticed. Several fouls were called against Anglican High in the second quarter, giving SCGS many chances to convert. SCGS seized the opportunities and gained five points via free throws. Anglican High, on the other hand, were often left dumbstruck when fouls committed by their opponents were not called.
Throughout the quarter, protests from the Anglican High side increased. Standing by the side of the court, the frustration of the coach was evident as he yelled out his objections. On one occasion the coach and the referee confronted each other and debated several missed calls during the quarter. Others also voiced their unhappiness but the referee appeared to brush off their dissent and continued with his refereeing. Unhappy about being ignored, the Anglican High coach ran out of patience and vented his frustration, earning him a technical foul from the referee when he argued with the referee at half time.
Anglican High only managed to put in two points in this quarter, both from free throws by their #4. SCGS on the other hand scored 14 points, giving themselves a 20-6 lead.
In the third quarter, Anglican High tried their best to recover from the setback. The Anglican High coach sat on the bench calling out instructions to his players, dissatisfaction clearly written on his face. Even team captain Cheryl Boh (AHS, #5), who was recovering from an injury, stood up and yelled at the referee at one point. To his credit, the Anglican High coach maintained team discipline and instructed her to sit down.
SCGS did not take their foot off the pedal, continuing to apply pressure on their opponents even as bystanders silently echoed the fouls which the referee did not catch. SCGS scored six points in this quarter; the beleaguered Anglican High team managed none.
Settling into the realisation that the game was lost, the Anglican High coach retired several players to the bench. As he fielded his other players, the scoring streak by SCGS continued. The Anglican High players were visibly unhappy at the unfair treatment, resulting in some rough play, though overall play continued under control.
By now the game on the other court had ended and all eyes, including those of many senior coaches, were on this unfolding drama. Anglican High kept their fighting spirit strong, struggling to sink in as many baskets as they could. The game ended with Anglican High guns still blazing as they fought back to score 17 points. However, SCGS still triumphed with 20 points scored in the fourth quarter to win the game 46-23.
The top scorer for the match was Alana (SCGS, #10), sinking in a whopping 24 points for her team. This included 6 converted free throws and one 3-pointer. She dominated the match, as the second highest scorers – Gladys (SCGS, #8), SCGS #14 and AHS #14 – put in just 6 points for their team.
In a sign of sportsmanship and respect of the game, the Anglican High coach directed his girls to shake hands with their opponents. The SCGS team, humble in victory, also gave three cheers to AHS after shaking hands. As the AHS team walked off disgruntled, there was no celebration by SCGS. That the game was flawed was perhaps best captured by what the SCGS coach was overheard saying, “Such a simple game, yet it took so long to complete”. This game also generated heated debate in the Red Sports chat box, with many laying charges of biased refereeing.
I am not saying that SCGS didn’t deserve to win. But AHS did not deserve to lose in that manner. A game with two well-matched teams and a result that could have gone either way, was marred by poor judgement calls which caused much unhappiness. Blatant fouls weren’t called, and the clock continued to run even after the referee had blown the whistle or when play had not started. The standard of basketball refereeing in Singapore certainly has room to improve.
Editor’s note: If you recognise yourself or your team mates in any of the photos, feel free to leave the names behind in the comment section and we will update the captions accordingly.
AHS, JiayouZZ!! 🙂 !
but if there is no rematch,isn’t it unfair to AHS,they fought super hard to get into top 8th and they were aiming for top 4th but just because of the referees’ mistakes, their hopes were lost and their dreams were perish?! it is very unfair to them,they fought hard! it is the referees fault so AHS should have a rematch as they did not deserve to have referees like them and they do not deserve to lose like that!
SCGS won, this is the fact, can’t change alr! So, don’t hink can rematch. Anyway, this is the experience for all basketballers. We hope that the referees was just dreaming at that game, not the coming games!! If not, that make us very disappointed. If have any solution, can we “ban” the referee? EPL/ England FA can do that.
the anglican high player who tries to break through the SCGS defense is Rhesa(AHS#6)
hey,if the referees want to do something to solve any problem,
there should be a rematch&please,change referees.
why the referees must be so bias??!!
why cant they be fair to everyone?isit just because of some stupid money??!!
anglican high does not deserve the right to lose this game!
they played with real sportmanship.they were humble till to end,they even shook scgs’s players’hands.
scgs has so many technical fouls against many players from anglican high such as#4, #6,#11,#12,#9…..and the referees did not blow the whistle ?!and is normal that such things happen,the coaches or players will get very angry. but why is that anglican high get a technical foul when the coach only argue with the referees only once while scgs has more than one technical fouls on the players and they got away with just one warning?! i mean,this is so unfair to anglican high! is this national referees attitude like that?!anglican high did not even want to argue,instead they keep on fighting and never give up,this is real sportmanship. so they should deserve a rematch and i really think that referees must not be bias and lazy!
sorry 2 ahs #4,#11,#14 and#9……..for the u-noe-wat things i did…….sorry and i sincerely apologise to you good sportsmanship basketballers….
i tink the refree is quite bias against us…….ya….scgs………….but i definitely tink tat anglican is quite good even without thier captain….so even we’ve won anglican,i stil tink tat they are much better than us….(no offence to my teamates….)
duh! its so obvious la! i agree with Crapster, who said that nowadays, referees’ standard has definely dropped by ALOT, and tat dey do not call for fouls when supposed to. Whats more, how can they have such referees in the NATIONALS! I feel that it is not worth for anglican high to lose in such a manner, especially after coming this far! But i also agree that scgs played a good game.
SCGS #8 is Gladys .
if that is the referee fault, then can’t argue? Unfair!!
if like that, nobody can give referee technical foul?
argue with ref will get technical fouls one
yes, i agree of you. I don’t know what the reason that referee gave the coach technical foul. Some one know? just because argue with referee? And, i saw the SCGS#10 always shout beside the opponent’s ear when she is defence, is it allow? Because of this, the coach argue with referee. Then, referee just ignore! It’s too many wrong judgement and bad decison of referee. I thought the referee dreaming all the time, always not focus on the court, and they couldn’t follow the pace of game, just walk sometime.
The technical foul was called during half time, not during the second quarter.
I definitely that the refree-ing standard have dropped, due to coaches shouting at the refrees for bad calls or just being plained biased at a game, the professional level that a refree should have had dropped, i suggest bas retrain their refrees, refree-ing standards, in order to ref basketball games in the youth olympic.