By Rebecca Yip/Red Sports
Daniel Leong (#8) of New Town lays up against the Dunman High defence. (Photo © Les Tan/Red Sports)
Clementi Sports Hall, Thursday, August 2, 2012 — New Town Secondary came from behind to stun Dunman High 51-48 and earn their first win of the National C Division Basketball Championship in their final game of the season.
New Town and Dunman High had both lost to Catholic High and North Vista Secondary in their previous Round 1 group matches.
New Town’s Wan Min Xiong (#10) finished as top scorer with a game-high 21 points, while Gifford Chuang (#11) was Dunman High’s top scorer with 14.
Dunman High started off strong and kept a slight lead over New Town throughout the first half. Both quarters ended with Dunman High two points up, with scores of 18-16 and 26-24 after the first and second quarters respectively.
Dunman High went further ahead when Georyl Pay (#4) added a 3-point shot to extend their lead at the start of the second half. but New Town never gave up fighting.
Plenty of mis-passes by both sides saw the game go through many turnovers. It was then that New Town started to turn the game around. Min Xiong (#10) tied the score at 33-33 with a basket resulting from a throw-in, and a buzzer-beating 3-point shot by Cleve Low (#9) gave New Town a 44-37 lead at the end of the third quarter.
Weak defending and sloppy play by New Town allowed Dunman High to speedily level the score at 46-46 by the middle of the fourth quarter to keep their hopes of winning alive. The score stayed stagnant for three minutes as both teams made multiple attempts at the basket to no avail.
New Town finally broke the deadlock with a basket from Cleve Low (#9). Five successful free throws from both Cleve and Min Xiong (#10) made up the rest of their fourth-quarter score.
Dunman High outscored New Town in two quarters and were tied in one, but unfortunately could not bounce back from their 20-11 trouncing by New Town in the third quarter to lose by two points at 48-51.51-48.
Dunman High’s captain, Tan Jin Hui (#8), was disappointed with the game, which they had hoped to win.
He said: “The game was a let-down because we expected to win this match. We were too overconfident and made many mistakes. The defence was poor and we made many fouls.”
His hopes for next season is for both his B Division team and his juniors to be in the top four of the Nationals.
New Town’s top scorer, Wan Min Xiong (#10), said of his team’s performance: “The team played well and fought our hardest.”
He also added that the Basketball Championship was a good learning process for all of them and hopes that he would learn and improve more in the B Division next year.
Score by Quarter
New Town vs Dunman High
1st Q: 16-18
2nd Q: 8-8 (24-26)
3rd Q: 20-11 (44-37)
4th Q: 7-11
Final: 51-48
Top Scorers
New Town Secondary
Wan Min Xiong (#10) — 21 points
Cleve Low Wei Jie (#9) — 16 points
Denilson Soh Cai Jun (#7) — 8 points
Dunman High
Gifford Chuang (#11) — 14 points
Jordan Chan (#7) — 9 points
Tan Jin Hui (#8) — 9 points
Georyl Pay (#4) — 6 points
New Town Roster
Harittaran (#4), Malcolm Wang Jing Xiang (#5), Justin Yue Yi Xin (#6), Denilson Soh Cai Jun (#7), Leong Daniel (#8), Cleve Low Wei Jie (#9), Wan Min Xiong (#10), Justin Tan Zhen Zhou (#11), Kwan Jong Xiang (#12), Patrick Low Wei Jie (#13), Sherman Goh Jun Ze (#14), Sai Vikash S/O Sin Kumar (#15)
Dunman High Roster
Georyl Pay (#4), Irvin Seet (#5), Ong Kong Hong (#6), Jordan Chan (#7), Tan Jin Hui (#8), Adriell Phoe (#9), Zhang Han (#10), Gifford Chuang (#11), Chan Ray (#12), Teo Nian Kai (#13), Ong Kang Wei (#14), Yang Zi Meng (#15)
National C Division Basketball Championship — full fixtures and results
More photos in gallery next page
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