North Zone B Div Bball (Girls): Nan Chiau High edge out Naval Base 21-19

By Joseph Lee and Les Tan/Red Sports

Singapore Basketball Centre, Wednesday, January 18, 2012 — Nan Chiau High and Naval Base Secondary played out an exciting Group X game on Monday, January 16th, that went down to the very last second before Nan Chiau won it 21-19.

Both teams exchanged the lead many times, with not more than a few points separating them. Nan Chiau took the lead with a 2-pointer with just 15.27 seconds left on the clock. Naval Base then called a timeout but their last attack failed when they lost the ball during the inbound pass.

When the final buzzer went off, the Nan Chiau bench erupted in screams, with some of their players breaking out in tears of joy.

Last year’s top four — Christ Church Secondary, Deyi Secondary, Compassvale Secondary, Woodgrove Secondary — have had mixed fortunes after their opening games.

Defending champions Woodgrove have a 1-1 record in Group Z. They lost 30-33 to Seng Kang in their opening game but bounced back to beat Yishun 50-24.

2011 runners-up Deyi are a perfect 2-0 so far in Group X. They beat Naval Base 64-17 in their opening game and followed that up with another big win, a 46-19 defeat of Northbrooks Secondary. They so dominated in the first half that Northbrooks only got their points from the third quarter onwards.

Christ Church, who finished third in 2011, lost their opening Group Y game 27-29 to North Vista. North Vista are a perfect 2-0, their other win coming in a 50-19 defeat of Compassvale.

The North Vista girls played a composed game against Compassvale. Their full court press defense suffocated the Compassvale players who resorted to throwing long balls which often landed back in the hands of their North Vista opponents who had plenty of fast breaks. North Vista were also dominant in the paint, grabbing most of the rebounds.

Compassvale, who were fourth in 2011, have lost both their games so far. Apart from the defeat by North Vista, they went down 26-34 to Ahmad Ibrahim Secondary.

North Zone B Division Girls’ Basketball Championship — fixtures and results