Story and photos by Low Zheng Yu/Red Sports
Jonathan Goh (DHS #7) accelerates to the hoop. (Photo 1 © Low Zheng Yu/Red Sports)
Anglican High, Thursday, March 2, 2017 — Dunman High School (DHS) came up clutch at the end of the fourth quarter to survive and defeat Anglican High School (AHS) 49-48 and win the East Zone B Division Basketball Boys Championship.
With this win, Dunman High will advance to the National Championship as the first seed from the East Zone while Anglican High move on as second seed. The Nationals commence after the March holidays.
Having lost to Anglican High in Round 1, Dunman High went into the game with vengeance on their minds.
As soon as the ball was tipped, Dunman High got to work. Darren Pay (DHS #6) spotted a loophole in the Anglican High defense and drove all the way to the rack for the basket. However, he was fouled and was made to earn the points at the free throw line. Darren (DHS #6) went on to make one of two free throws.
Dunman High capitalized on the momentum they had to score easily. With a few simple passes, they were able to find the open man. The players were hot and made most of their open shots.
Anglican High were off to a slow start. They could not contain Dunman High’s hot shooting and had trouble making their own baskets.
The first quarter ended with Dunman High up 15-9.
The hot scoring of Dunman High continued into the second quarter. They went on a 7-0 run to bring their lead up to 13 points.
However, Anglican High started their counter-attack. Jovan Wong (AHS #8) scored three consecutive baskets which gave them a fighting chance.
Anglican High ended the quarter with a three-pointer from Brandon Koh (AHS #7) to cut the Dunman High lead to just four.
Both teams came out from the break hot. They traded baskets and things were at a stalemate. However, Brandon Koh (AHS #7) scored a three to further reduce the Dunman High lead to one.
The made three caused the Dunman High players to panic. They started to rush their plays which led to poor shot choices.
Anglican High got their first lead of the game when Jeremy Teo (AHS #15) made a wide open shot. However, Dunman High quickly answered by drawing a foul. Colin Ho (DHS #10) made two free throws to give Dunman High a one-point lead.
Just when the momentum seemed to have shifted back to Dunman High, Brandon Koh (AHS #7) made a three to give the lead back to Anglican High.
Dunman High, undaunted, fought back and the third quarter ended in a 33-33 tie.
Knowing everything was on the line in this final quarter, both teams entered the game with high intensity despite their fatigue.
They traded baskets from the start with neither team letting up. Whenever Dunman High scored, Anglican High would answer back with their own.
Zachary Gan (DHS #11) of Dunman High broke the stalemate by making a three to give them a one-point lead. Thereafter, Avner Tan (DHS #5) made a layup to increase the lead to three.
With a tremendous amount of pressure to win in front of their home crowd, Brandon Koh (AHS #7) came up clutch and answered with a three. The hall erupted in cheers for the home team as the game was tied once again.
On the ensuing play, Garrison Koh (AHS #2) was fouled and sent to the line. He made one of two free throw to give Anglican High a one-point lead with about two minutes left to play.
Not letting that affect their play, Dunman High called for a time-out to come up with a strategy and to break whatever momentum that Anglican High had got going.
Anglican High upped the intensity of their defense to try and stop Dunman High. However, Jonathan Goh (DHS #7) got free and had a wide open lane. He drove all the way in and stopped before the defense could reach him and made the clutch floater. This gave Dunman High a one-point lead with less than a minute to play.
With the time ticking away, Anglican High took a gamble and fouled Zachary Gan (AHS #11) to preserve the time while hoping he would miss his free throws. Their prayers were answered as Zachary Gan (DHS #11) made one of two free throws.
While this gave Dunman High a two-point lead, it was a one-possession game for Anglican High. Anglican High took a time-out to come up with a play.
As soon as Anglican High got the ball in, Dunman High went to work with their high intensity defense. This put a lot of pressure on the ball handler. But Anglican High remained calm and managed to find the open shooter who took the shot.
While the shot missed, Anglican managed to grab the offensive rebounds by out-hustling the Dunman High players. With just 10 seconds left, Anglican High rushed to put their shots up on multiple tries from the numerous offensive rebounds they had hustled for. However, it was to no avail as they missed all their shots.
On their last try, Collin Cho (AHS #32) who got the rebound was fouled in the act of shooting with two seconds left to play. This sent him to the free throw lines with two shot attempts. He hit nothing but net on his first attempt as he cut the Dunman High lead to just one point.
However on the second free throw attempt, Wei Jie (AHS #9) who was anxious to get the rebound stepped into the paint area before the free throw was released. As this would caused a turnover, Collin Cho (AHS #32) halted his free throw attempt to wait for his teammate to get back out of the paint area.
In doing so, he had faked a free throw which was a violation itself. This costly mistake led to a turnover by Anglican High.
As Dunman High got the ball inbound, the time expired before Anglican High could foul again to stall for time.
The costly turnover allowed Dunman high to claim the Championship title 49-48.
Jonathan Goh (DHS #7), captain of Dunman High, said, “When I was going for that last shot, I was thinking they were in foul trouble so the instinct was to drive in. As I got into the interior, the center didn’t step up and I was given a lot of space. It was a comfortable range and I put up a simple floater. There was a calmness and I knew it was going in.”
“I am proud of my guys and honored to have been playing with you all for the past few years. If there was one thing I could do again, I will definitely live through all these with all of you again.”
“We will aim high for Nationals and that will always be our goal. For now it is time to train towards our target.”
Scoring by Quarter
Dunman High vs Anglican High
1st Q: 15-9
2nd Q: 11-13 (26-22)
3rd Q: 7-11 (33-33)
4th Q: 16-15 (49-48)
Top Scorers
Dunman High
Zachary Gan (#11) – 17 pts
Anglican High
Brandon Koh (#7) – 15 pts
Glenn Tan (#10) – 12 pts
Dunman High School Roster
Matthew Ho (#4), Avner Tan (#5), Darren Pay (#6), Jonathan Goh (#7), Kinczel Tan (#8), Nicholas Soh (#9), Colin Ho (#10), Zachary Gan (#11), Leong Ee Hao (#12), Heng Zhi Cheng (#13), Huang Shun (#14), Yong Wei (#15)
Anglican High School Roster
Garrison Koh (#2), Brandon Koh (#7), Jovan Wong (#8), Wei Jie (#9), Glenn Tan (#10), Yun Kang (#12), Ryan Chong (#13), Jeremy Teo (#15), Nicholas Chang (#24), Collin Cho (#32), Bryan Liew (#33)
More photos next page
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