Story and photos by Les Tan/Red Sports
SCGS celebrate their South Zone title after the final buzzer. (Photo 1 © Les Tan/Red Sports)
Delta Sports Complex, Wednesday, March 2, 2011 — The Singapore Chinese Girls’ School beat Raffles Girls’ School 40-36 to win the South Zone B Division Basketball Championship this afternoon.
SCGS, the defending South Zone champions, led 19-17 at half-time. Rebecca Foong (#5) of SCGS scored a game-high 19 points and was named Most Valuable Player.
“Their fighting spirit was very strong,” said SCGS coach Chiew Poh Leng after the game. “Their confidence was very high.”
SCGS, who beat Zhonghua Secondary 50-37 in the semi-finals, are undefeated, outscoring their opponents by a collective 308-86 in their four group games. Their biggest win came in their 100-17 defeat of Mayflower Secondary.
RGS were similarly unbeaten coming into the final, winning all their group games by a collective 218-86 scoreline. RGS, who beat St Margaret’s Secondary 60-33 to qualify for the final, registered their biggest win in the 75-8 defeat of Bukit Merah Secondary in round one.
SCGS led 15-12 in the first quarter but the scoring frenzy slowed right down in the second with RGS holding their opponents to many scoreless minutes at the 17-point mark. SCGS finally managed four points in the second quarter to walk off with a slim 19-17 lead at the break.
It was another low-scoring quarter in the third, with RGS suffering in particular. They went scoreless for the first six-and-a-half minutes before their #15 registered their first two points from free throws for her team to trail by five (19-24). That set RGS a little on their way and SCGS only led by three (26-23) at the end of the third.
With less than three minutes left in regulation time, SCGS led by 12 (38-26) and many thought the game was over. However, RGS came roaring back with a five-point scoring run to trail only by seven (31-38) with 2:28 left, leading SCGS coach Chiew Poh Leng to call a timeout to reorganise her team.
With the shrill screams of their supporters cheering them on, RGS made it a four-point game (36-40) with 24 seconds left on the clock but SCGS managed to prevail to win the South Zone title.
“I think everyone played a part,” a modest MVP Rebecca Foong of SCGS said after the game about her game-high 19-point contribution to the team.
The RGS comeback towards the end was stressful but Rebecca said “with my teammates, it wasn’t so bad. Coach told us to watch our passes and don’t make mistakes.”
“How low can you go?” Gladys Molino of SCGS goes under the RGS defense. (Photo 2 © Les Tan/Red Sports)
Go to next page for the rest of the story and more photos
RAFFLES GIRLS:
4:Cheryl Pay
5:Farah Tan
6:Wang Qiu Hiu
7:Celeste Ang
8:Gan Hui Zhen
9:Madeline
10:Choo Yun Ting
11:Koo Hui Fen
12:Wu You
13:Cassandra Kee
14:Isabel Wong
15:Leanne Cheng
There you go, the awesome Rafflesians:))))))))))))) haha,uncle Les:i find the article very scgs biased… and us Rafflesians literally came back with a ROAR at the near end with our cheers! and i was surprised the scgs people managed to win with more than 3/4 of the entire hall filled with rafflesians… but i think both raffles played very well
You’re welcome to send in your own version of the game, Michal : )
http://redsports.sg/tell-your-story/
You send it, we post it.
Thanks for the names. Much appreciated. ; )
no prob:)
Hi. Being a sportsperson myself, I hope you don’t get the idea that having 3/4 the place filled green would have ensured RG the title. Outcomes are dependent on the teams’ abilities and fighting spirits, and the stronger team was evident in this game (as proven by SC).
Kudos to a game well played to both teams though!
No. 12 from SCGS is Georgia May Goh.
It’s #5 REBECCA FOONG. not Rebecca Choong.
#12 for SCGS is Georgia May Goh.Pls contact me for namelist, am the teacher in charge. Thanks
Thanks for catching that mistake.