Presbyterian High beat New Town to win B Division Basketball Championship title

Story by REDintern Alan Chiang, Photos by Vanessa Lim/Red Sports

Jurong East Sports Hall, Thursday, April 30, 2009 - Presbyterian High conquered New Town Secondary 54-45 to be crowned the new champions of the boys' B Division Basketball Championship.

Both teams had met earlier in the quarter-final round of the national championship and it was New Town which emerged victorious then to inflict the only defeat for Presbyterian High in the championship. That unexpected defeat for Presbyterian High left four-time defending champion Catholic High out in the cold on a countback.

It was a tightly-contested final with both teams cancelling out each other to walk off tied at 11-11 at the end of the first quarter. New Town deployed similar tactics as in the previous match-up to stop the big man Russel Low (Presbyterian High, #5) from holding on to the ball. At the other end, Presbyterian High tried to contain the dazzling Lor Weng Siang (NTS, #9) from entering the paint.

In the second quarter, both sides were left frustrated by missed easy chances and it took about three minutes before Bing Yao (PHS, #6) converted an under-basket shot for the first points of the quarter. Weng Siang (NTS, #9) answered immediately and helped New Town take a comfortable lead only for Yao Ming (PHS, #8) to make a 3-pointer to tie the match at 16-16.

Both sides then had numerous attempts at the basket as Weng Siang single-handedly carried his team with a nine-point contribution. However, Presbyterian High managed to hold on to a slender two-point 22-20 lead at half-time.

Presbyterian High got off to a positive start in the third quarter as Yao Ming (#8) and Jun Jie (#11) contributed to the team's 7-0 run. New Town appeared slow to recover and allowed Presbyterian to break away with a 12-point lead at 32-20.

With 6:06 remaining, the New Town coach sorted things out and within the next two minutes, their points started to flow in from Weng Siang.

Moments later, Hubert Neo (#12) joined in the fray as he helped to carry Weng Siang's burden with two big 3-pointers. New Town managed to control the final minutes of the quarter and cut Presbyterian High's lead to only a point at 33-34.

The Presbyterian High coach was furious with his team as they threw away a huge lead to allow New Town to come back into the game so easily. The players responded to his call and started the final quarter strongly. As Weng Siang had to sit down for a break, Presbyterian High took advantage and increased their lead to five points within those few minutes.

With the absence of their key player, New Town looked weak in offense and lacked a leader to direct their defense, which allowed Russel (PHS, #5) to make good use of the ample space in the paint.

With less than three minutes of playing time remaining, Weng Siang was brought back on and he made an immediate impact with several points. But his lone effort was not enough to overcome the huge deficit and Presbyterian High went on to take the championship title.

Mr Steven Ong, Presbyterian High's teacher-in-charge said, "We came into the match after understanding how New Town played against us earlier. We tried to stop Lee Shi Hao (NTS, #8) and Weng Siang from scoring with a 1-1-3 defensive tactic."

He felt that the school's support and encouragement also helped the team to focus on winning the basketball title. He said, "There is no pressure at all and the school has been encouraging."

On the school’s plans to retain the title next year, he said, "The bulk of the students are in the final year so we have to start to train the C Div boys from scratch like how we have groomed talents like Yao Ming (#8), who did not have any basketball background when he joined the school."

Yao Ming, who top scored for Presbyterian High with 22 points, was delighted to win the final.

"I’m very happy though there was much pressure before the match. I tried to play my game too."

He is one of the few basketball players selected for the Asian Youth Games and will continue with training even after the national schools' championship.

Scores by quarter
1st Q: PHS 11 NTS 11
2nd Q: PHS 11 NTS 9
3rd Q: PHS 12 NTS 13
4th Q: PHS 22 NTS 12

Top scorer
PHS
Yao Ming (#8) - 22 points
Russel (#5) - 13 points
Bing Yao (#6) - 13 points

NTS
Lor Weng Siang (#9) - 28 points
Hubert Neo (#12) - 9 points