Story by Koh Yizhe and Erwin Wong/Red Sports. Photos by Koh Yizhe/Red Sports.
Fabian (Unity #11) weaves his way past New Town's defense for a layup. (Photo 1 © Koh Yizhe/Red Sports)
Clementi Sports Hall, Friday, April 9, 2010 – Unity Secondary and Anglican High School became the first teams to advance to the boys’ national semi-finals of the Schools Basketball Championships when they notched their second consecutive quarter-final win in Group X.
Unity, which were knocked out of last year’s competition at this stage, ended national runners-up New Town Secondary’s campaign with a comprehensive 76-42 victory over them, consigning New Town to their second straight defeat.
This year’s favourites had a balanced attack, placing four players in double figures in points, while turning it on at the defensive end as well.
Unity turned a 38-30 half-time lead into a blow-out by limiting New Town to only two points in the third quarter and 12 in the entire second half.
Peter Soo led Unity with 17 points and Delvin Goh added 16, while Hibshamir had 13 points for New Town.
Unity and Anglican High will lock horns on Tuesday, April 20, and the week’s break will come in handy for a tired Unity team.
“We have to make most of our shots count. They [Anglican High] are a very hardworking team who like to run a lot, and have lots of stamina,” said Unity’s senior player Ng Wei Xiang.
“They can run very fast, and most of them are bigger sized than us.”
In the other Group X match, Anglican High School secured a spot in the semi-finals with a 54-36 victory over Queesnway Secondary.
After losing to Unity by a massive 24-80 scoreline, Queensway had to beat Anglican High to have any chance of staying in the competition.
Instead, it was Anglican High that brought the game to Queensway with Sherwin Yen nailing a trey to start the match for the East Zone champions.
By the end of the half, Anglican High established a comfortable 23-12 while Queensway struggled to break down Anglican High's physical and aggressive defense and even when they were able to get close to the basket, they were rather unfortunate not to see their shots go in.
Although Queensway were able to cut the deficit in the third quarter, Anglican High turned up their game in the fourth quarter, winning it 25-15. Queensway start Johann Yeo only came to life in the final quarter as he scored 11 of his game-high 19 points, but it was not enough to prevent his side from crashing out of the tournament.
"Personally, I am satisfied with my performance," said Anglican High captain Chee Khan Liang, who led his side with 18 points. "As a team however, we know we can still play better than today. We have to work on our defense and rebounding. Against Unity, we'll have to play our best. They are very tall and fast so I'll leave it up to the coach to come up with a strategy for that."
"Hopefully, in the semi-finals, we don't face North Vista, but even if we do, we'll do our best," he added.
For photos and stats, go to the next page
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