C Division Basketball: Unity Secondary edge past Mayflower Secondary in tightly contested 36-28 game

Story by Jessica Soo/Red Sports. Photos by Zachary Foo/Red Sports.

OCBC Arena, Wednesday, August 21, 2019 — Unity Secondary (US) emerged victorious in a hard 36–28 win against Mayflower Secondary (MS) during the quarter-finals of the National C Division Boys Basketball Championship.

Muhammed A’aqif (US #11) led the scorers with 17 points and (MS #9) followed behind with a stellar performance of scoring 11 points of his own.

Mayflower took the initiative to score the first point on a turnover. At first, Unity struggled to get into paint due to Mayflower’s stout defence.

Nevertheless they stayed alert and with the help of Muhammed A’aqif (US #11) who went coast to coast on a fast break, scored their point.

In the second quarter, both teams appeared to be more warmed up. Mayflower scored several points during the turnovers, when Unity’s defence was not set.

Defensive rebounds were caught and this allowed counter-attack for both teams. The score was thus tied multiple times during the match.

In a bid to step ahead of Mayflower, Unity began to make rushed but inaccurate passes. The show of their nerves led to points being converted on Mayflower’s end.

However, as the game approached the final minutes, Unity bolstered ahead of Mayflower in offence and showed a discipline defence form. This allowed them an eight point gap with the opponent.

The game of time began as Mayflower struggled to gain possession to score points in a bid to win the game. However, Unity chose to stall for time and kept passing on the outside. This gave Mayflower little opportunity to fight for possession, and thus as the clock hit zero, Unity walked out with a win in their bag.

When talking about the team’s goal for National’s, Muhammed A’aqif (US #11) had this to say: “Hopefully, we will make it as one of the top four teams. We aim to work together as a team and once a mistake is made, we learn from it.”

Scoring by Quarter 
USS vs MSS
1st Quarter: 12–16
2nd Quarter: 5–19 (17–35)
3rd Quarter: 6–7 (23–42)
4th Quarter: 7–17 (30–59)

Scoring by Quarter 
USS 
Muhammed A’aqif (US #11) – 17 points
MSS
#9 – 11 points

USS Roster 
Ariola Joseph (#3), Catiter Kyran Suetos (#4), Landayan Santos (#5), Lee Jun Wei (#6), Muhamad Izzuddin (#7), Muhammed A’aqif (#11), Muhamad Nurhan (#13), Rafael Ng (#17), Javier Lee (#23), Belvin Chua (#34), Daviusz Ng (#40)
MSS Roster 
We were unable to obtain the roster for Mayflower Secondary. If you know any of the players, kindly post them in the comments below and we’ll update the post. Thanks

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