Story and photos by Les Tan/Red Sports
Kovan Toh (#5) of Presbyterian High had a game-high 26 points in the 78-43 win. (Photo 1 © Les Tan/Red Sports)
Republic Polytechnic, Thursday, August 25, 2016 — Presbyterian High School (PHS) defeated Anglo-Chinese School (Barker Road) 78-43 to win the National C Division Boys Basketball Championship for the first time.
Kovan Toh (#5) of PHS had a game-high 26 points while teammate Foo Yong Ming (#12) followed him with 22 points which included four 3-pointers. The two combined for 48 points, more than half of their 78-point total.
Dervin Rajandhran (#11) led ACS (Barker) with 14 points, including two 3-pointers, while teammate Calder Teo (#12) also managed double-digit scoring with 10.
To qualify for the final, Presbyterian High had beaten Dunman High 59-18 in one semi-final, while ACS (Barker) defeated Chung Cheng High (Main) 68-50 in the other. This was ACS (Barker)’s first ever appearance in a national championship basketball final.
Presbyterian High built an early 6-3 lead in the first quarter but ACS (Barker) came back. A go-ahead basket by Dervin (#11) to give ACS (Barker) a 7-6 lead forced PHS into a timeout.
However, Dervin (#11) came back out of the timeout to drop a 3-pointer, his second in the quarter, to pull ACS (Barker) ahead to 10-6.
That would turn out to be the end of ACS (Barker) scoring in the first quarter.
PHS proceeded to give the full house crowd a display of pin-point shooting to amass 12 unanswered points. Nine of those points came in a blistering last 1:30 in the quarter, highlighted by a 3-pointer from Foo Yong Ming (#12), who would win Most Valuable Players (MVP) honours after the final.
The ACS (Barker) scoring drought continued into the second quarter as PHS poured in another four points to lead 22-10 with 6:42 left.
Panca Maulana Waranullah (#34) sank a free throw to finally register a point in the ACS (Barker) column after four minutes played. Teammate Romuel Baking (#4) then scored from a driving layup to reduce the deficit to 11 points (13-24) give the ACS (Barker) something to cheer about.
However, PHS snuffed out any flickering hope of an ACS (Barker) comeback by going on an 11-0 run which was capped off by two back-to-back 3-point bombs from Yong Ming (#12). This gave PHS their largest lead of 19 points (32-13) in the game up to that point.
ACS (Barker) mustered a fight back in the closing moments of the second quarter. Khant Zay Naing (#8) scored five in a seven-point run to reduce the deficit at half time for ACS (Barker) to 16 (20-38).
PHS put things beyond doubt in the third quarter, as they exploded to outscore ACS (Barker) 28-11. At one point, PHS led by 30 points (56-26) with 3:20 to go.
PHS entered the fourth quarter with a 64-31 lead, hitting their largest lead of 31 points (74-39) with 2:15 left. With a minute left on the clock, PHS sent on their bench players to seal a commanding 78-43 win.
“I’m just very happy. It’s unexpected,” said Yong Ming (#12) about his MVP award. “I thought it would be a closer game.”
“The win was unexpected,” said captain Kovan Toh (#5), “because we thought ACS would be a strong opponent. We wanted to play our best, so we did, and in the end we managed to pull away with the lead, and we had an unexpected victory.”
“The best part of the whole season is that we did not lose one game,” added Kovan.
PHS went undefeated in 19 games. In the National Championship they amassed an 8-0 win-loss record. PHS also finished as North Zone champions when they defeated Christ Church Secondary 64-56 to finish with an 11-0 record in the zone.
“Our toughest opponent was Christ Church,” recalled Kovan. “They had a #9 (Pan Ming Hui) who was very good at cutting, and they had a tall centre (Nyan Lin, #14). The two of them worked pretty well together. Their teammates, their average height was about 1.7m, so it was quite a tough match for us, but we still managed to pull it off.”
PHS had to force over time in the North Zone final before winning it by eight points. They met Christ Church three times over the course of the season.
Apart from this C Division boys’ title, PHS had also won the girls’ C Division title back in 1989.
ACS (Barker) finished the National Championship with a 7-1 record. In the South Zone final, ACS (Barker) lost 83-87 to Fairfield Methodist School to finish with a 9-1 record in the zone.
Dunman High beat Chung Cheng High (Main) 39-37 to finish third.
Scorers
PHS
Kovan Toh (#5) – 26 pts
Foo Yong Ming (#12) – 22 pts (4 x 3-pointers)
Vieri Ong (#6) – 9 pts (1 x 3-pointer)
Tang Kah Wai (#10) – 8 pts
Jaron Ng (#15) – 6 pts
Goh Yi Xiang (#23) – 5 pts (1 x 3-pointer)
Constantin Lim (#0) – 2 pts
ACS(BR)
Dervin Rajandhran (#11) – 14 pts (2 x 3-pointers)
Calder Teo (#12) – 10 pts
Khant Zay Naing (#8) – 9 pts
Panca (#34) – 4 pts
Romuel Baking (#4) – 3 pts
Juan Cayanan (#9) – 2 pts
Bryan Yue (#24) – 1 pt
Scoring by Quarter
PHS vs ACS(BR)
1st Q: 18-10
2nd Q: 18-10 (36-20)
3rd Q: 28-11 (64-31)
4th Q: 14-12 (78-43)
PHS Roster
Constantin Lim (#0), Keean Chuang (#2), Ivan Kau (#4), Kovan Toh (#5), Vieri Ong (#6), Goh Zeng Wee (#9), Tang Kah Wai (#10), Lucus Tng (#11), Foo Yong Ming (#12), Jaron Ng (#15), Tan Jia Hao (#21), Goh Yi Xiang (#23)
ACS(BR) Roster
Glen Chiam (#1), Wesley Wong (#2), Romuel Baking (#4), Justus Quek (#5), Khant Zay Naing (#8), Juan Cayanan (#9), Kuah Zi’en (#10), Dervin Leiroy Rajandhran (#11), Calder Teo (#12), Jared Choy (#18), Bryan Yue (#24), Panca Maulana Waranullah (#34)
Zonal and National C Division Boys Basketball Championships – partial fixtures and results
More photos next page
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