Story by Chan Hui Mui/Red Sports

Republic Polytechnic, Monday, May 16, 2011 — Defending champions Anglo-Chinese Junior College trailed for the first three quarters but exploded in the final quarter to beat Hwa Chong Institution 52-43 to finish top of Group Y in the National A Division Netball Championship.

ACJC had earlier beaten Anderson Junior College and River Valley High 67-19 and 63-32 respectively.

Both teams had a slow start with ACJC displaying poor passes and Hwa Chong having poor shooting accuracy. As soon as Hwa Chong’s shooters found their momentum, Hwa Chong capitalised on ACJC’s mistakes and surged ahead to take a five-point lead.

Leading 14-9, Hwa Chong, who have nine players from last year’s team, continued their smooth flow of attack in the second quarter while ACJC had a good scolding from their coach Kok Mun Wai before managing to settle down. The game saw both teams matching each other goal for goal with Hwa Chong leading 27-23 to enter the third quarter.

ACJC’s shooters lost their concentration in the third quarter and gave Hwa Chong’s defenders several rebounds. However, Hwa Chong were too sloppy with their passes to capitalise, throwing the ball back into ACJC hands.

Both teams still managed to score 12 goals each despite their mistakes in the third quarter.

The last quarter saw Hwa Chong continue to attack smoothly for the first few minutes before they lost their focus with one misplaced pass after another, allowing ACJC to take their first lead since the opening minutes at 44-43.

Passing was not the only problem for Hwa Chong. Hwa Chong players across the whole court were being pulled out for several contact and obstruction calls, allowing ACJC to dominate the court for the second half of the final quarter and score eight consecutive goals to wrap up the game 52-43 to finish first in the group.

“We played well for the first three quarters. However, we lost our cool in the final quarter. On the other hand, ACJC came in strong in the final quarter. Our defenders have done well throughout the whole game, but our attackers did not. They did not attack well in the final quarter,” analysed Hwa Chong coach, Lin Shuangru.

“We played to our opponent’s pace in the first three quarters but in the last quarter, we (finally) played to our pace,” said ACJC’s Centre, Wendi Lai.

ACJC will face St. Andrew Junior College while Hwa Chong Institution will encounter Raffles Institution in the semi-finals.

“It will be a 50-50 game. Whoever makes the least mistakes will win the game,” said Raffles Institution’s coach, Chng Li Li.

National A Division Netball Championship — full fixtures and results