By Les Tan and Koh Yizhe/Red Sports
Bryan Kor (HCI, #11) finds himself up against Wang Jia Cheng (RI, #10). (Photo 1 © Les Tan/Red Sports)
Jurong West Sports Complex, Friday, March 27, 2009 – Hwa Chong Institution defied predictions of an early exit when they shocked Raffles Institution 73-54 in the National B Division Basketball Championship.
Things were going to form in this Group D game when RI led 18-14 at the end of the first quarter. By half-time though, HCI were slightly ahead 32-30. A tight third quarter saw HCI taking a 47-43 lead and then things fell apart for RI in the fourth.
With 7:36 on the clock, RI started to trail by 10 points at 43-53. With 4:46, RI were staring at a 16-point deficit at 45-61. RI then managed to cut down the gap to 11 points at 52-63 with 3:29 left. WIth 2:16 left, RI still trailed 52-67 but their shooting went to pieces and they ran out of time.
RI were eventually outscored 26-11 in the fourth to concede the game 54-73 to HCI.
The win couldn’t have been sweeter for the HCI team.
“It was good to prove critics wrong,” said HCI captain Yuan Ming (#4), acknowledging that a Red Sports reader’s prediction that HCI wouldn’t make the second round had motivated the team.
“The turnaround was when we played good defense by getting the defensive rebounds,” said Yuan Ming.
The win gives HCI an excellent chance of qualifying for the second round in their group with games against Presbyterian High and Temasek Secondary coming up. A win against Temasek will probably sew up second spot for HCI.
RI are now left in the almost impossible position of having to beat Presbyterian High to have any hope of qualifying from their group. Or failing which, hope that Temasek would beat Hwa Chong by a considerable margin and then beat Temasek themselves.
Cedar Girls’ Secondary suffered their first defeat of the national campaign when they went down 34-67 to Dunman Secondary. It was the second straight victory for Dunman, after they had dispatched Nanyang Girls’ High 64-60 in their first game. Cedar Girls’ beat Anderson 59-42 in their first game and are still in the hunt for a second round place.
In a boys’ Group A game played earlier in the week, Queensway Secondary’s Jeremy Ng had nerves of steel as he made four free throws in a row to help his side to a 65-63 victory against North Vista Secondary. Both teams were evenly matched throughout the match but it was Queensway who had the extra edge.
In the other Group A match, Anglican High had a tough encounter against River Valley High but pulled away in the fourth quarter to win 69-55.
Action in Group C saw defending champions Catholic High School comfortably beat Maris Stella High 84-57, while Unity Secondary scored the biggest win of the day with a 55-point 78-23 victory over Manjusri Secondary.
The Anglican High girl’s team also had a comfortable first outing as they beat Hua Yi Secondary 60-42 in Group C. RGS, missing a few key players, survived a scare in the third and fourth quarter to overcome the challenge of Woodgrove Secondary 51-46.
Detailed Results (Friday, March 27)
Hwa Chong Institution 73 Raffles Institution 54
Quarter-by-Quarter Scores
1st Q: RI 18 HCI 14
2nd Q: RI 12 HCI 18
3rd Q: RI 13 HCI 15
4th Q: RI 11 HCI 26
Top Scorers
RI
Wang Jia Cheng (#10) – 14 pts
(#5) – 13 pts (1 x 3-pt)
Jordaan Goh (#8) – 12 pts
HCI
Lee Lai Sheng (#7) – 20 pts
Cheong Rong Hao (#13) – 16 pts
Presbyterian High 88 Temasek Secondary 58
Quarter-by-Quarter Scores
1st Q: PHS 22 Temasek 15
2nd Q: PHS 25 Temasek 10
3rd Q: PHS 24 Temasek 14
4th Q: PHS 17 Temasek 19
Top Scorers
Presbyterian High
(#10) – 16 pts
Steven Teo (#13) – 12 pts
(#9) 12 pts (1 x 3-pt)
SCGS 45 Jurong Secondary 40
Quarter-by-Quarter Scores
1st Q: SCGS 4 Jurong 10
2nd Q: SCGS 7 Jurong 6
3rd Q: SCGS 16 Jurong 6
4th Q: SCGS 17 Jurong 18
Top Scorers
Jurong
(#5) – 15 pts (1 x 3-pt)
(#10) – 10 pts (2 x 3-pt)
SCGS
(#8) – 18 pts
Chung Cheng High (M) 64 Ahmad Ibrahim Secondary 47
Quarter-by-Quarter Scores
1st Q: CCHM 13 AI 5
2nd Q: CCHM 12 AI 4
3rd Q: CCHM 17 AI 14
4th Q: CCHM 22 AI 24
Top Scorers
CCHM
(#13) – 15 pts
Henry Wong (HCI, #5) lays up for two over the outstretched arm of Gregory Lawrence (RI, #5). (Photo 2 © Les Tan/Red Sports)
Lee Lai Sheng (#7) drives through to the basket against Gregory Lawrence (left) and Chua Wei Xuan. (Photo 3 © Les Tan/Red Sports)
Cheong Rong Hao (HCI, #11) finds himself up against Chua Wei Xuan (RI, #7). (Photo 4 © Les Tan/Red Sports)
Jun Jie (Presbyterian High, #11) passes out to a teammate while Khairul (Temasek, #10) defends. (Photo 5 © Les Tan/Red Sports)
Yao Ming (Presbyterian High, #8) lays up for two against Bryan Lee (Temasek, #13). Presbyterian High eventually won the game 88-58. (Photo 6 © Les Tan/Red Sports)
The Dunman #12 lays it up for two while the Cedar Girls’ #7 defends. (Photo 7 © Les Tan/Red Sports)
The Dunman player drives around the outstretched arm of a Cedar player. Dunman beat Cedar Girls’ 67-34 to top their group with two wins. (Photo 8 © Les Tan/Red Sports)
Zoe Tay (Anglican High, #9) goes for two over the outstretched hands of a Hua Yi player. (Photo 9 © Les Tan/Red Sports)
The Anglican High #15 finds her way to the basket blocked by a Hua Yi player. (Photo 10 © Les Tan/Red Sports)
Go to the SCHOOLS FIXTURES & RESULTS page for more information.
For more pictures, go to the gallery.
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? you gt me wrong, im not from any schls mentioned above, i am just reading redsports
Oh ok, thanks for letting me know. 🙂
sorry abt tt, im nt a basketball follower so i dont realli know the basketball scene
how shocking is that?
you know your tone betrayed the scorn you have for hci and that you believed that hci should lose to RI.
“… the scorn you have for hci…?” 😉
That’s quite funny. It really is.
It’s amazing how sensitive some of you players are to comments.
Relax will you?
If I didn’t like hci, i wouldn’t even write or shoot the team.
You should relax, spectator, or you will work yourself into a fit.
And by the way, you guys all think I wrote that HCI wouldn’t make it past the first round. It was written by a reader and he contributed the article to Red Sports.
So again, relax, HCI.
If you are good, you will make it through, and you can make your critics eat their words.
RI were expected to beat HCI. That was the form book. HCI upset the form book. So that’s great and congrats to the team. That’s why sports is so fun and full of unexpected twists.
Ic. Thanks for that.
The quarter by quarter scores for SCGS vs Jurong doesn’t seem right. So did Jurong win or SCGS win?
SCGS 45 Jurong Secondary 40
Quarter-by-Quarter Scores
1st Q: SCGS 10 Jurong 4
2nd Q: SCGS 6 Jurong 7
3rd Q: SCGS 6 Jurong 16
4th Q: SCGS 18 Jurong 17
Sorry, my mistake. I’ve corrected it.
SCGS won.