Clementi Sports Hall, Thursday, April 21, 2011 — It was always going to be an uphill task for Raffles Institution to qualify for the semi-finals for the National B Division Basketball Championship. They had to beat Dunman Secondary by 12 points to have any chance after losing their earlier group match against Jurong Secondary. Yet that did not deter RI from displaying tremendous courage and fighting spirit to almost clinch the match in regulation time.

In the end, Dunman emerged 48-46 winners of the game to clinch top spot in the group and a matchup against Anglican High School in the semi-finals on Monday, April 25th.

It seemed business as usual as Dunman, one of the pre-tournament favourites, rolled to an early 16-7 lead. RI, missing their starting forward Chan Chun Cheong (#12) due to a shoulder injury, struggled defensively in containing the Dunman forwards. Thng Jun Rong (Dunman #7) in particular, combined well with his teammate Alistier Tay (#12) to score 10 of his team’s 16 first-quarter points.

Dunman, the East Zone runners-up, continued to build on their impressive lead in the second and third quarters, racking up scores of 12-11 and 13-10 respectively to lead 41-28 at the end of the third quarter. Only some accurate shooting from RI’s Zhuang Baokun (#5) from beyond the 3-point line retained a semblance of contest in the game.

But RI turned up the intensity of the game in the fourth quarter to alter the complexion of the match.

RI’s Lim Mingjun scored on jumpshots to close the gap while a stifling full court zonal defense forced Dunman into numerous turnovers. The gap continued to close until RI drew level with Dunman 46-46 in the final stages of the game.

Faced with a chance to win the game outright, RI’s point guard Zhuang Baokun elected to miss his free throws in order to force overtime and an opportunity to generate a 12-point win. Instead, Dunman secured the rebound and Jun Rong was subsequently fouled with 2.8 seconds left on the clock. He coolly sank both free throws to eke out a narrow 48-46 win for his team.

Jurong Secondary cruised to a 61-31 win over Yishun Secondary in the other Group Y match despite a hard-fought opening quarter. Jurong will face Unity Secondary in the other semi-final scheduled for Monday, April 25th, 3pm. Both semi-finals will be played at Clementi Sports Hall.

Scoring by Quarters
RI v Dunman
1st Q: 7-16
2nd Q: 11-12
3rd Q: 10-13
4th Q: 18-7

Scorers
Raffles Institution
Zhuang Baokun (#5) —13 points
Lim Mingjun (#8) — 11 points
Alexander Loh (#6) — 5 points
Ng Yao Zhong (#10) — 5 points
Mark Khoo (#9) — 4 points
Benedict Ng (#13) — 4 points
Yves Remorca (#14) — 2 points

Dunman
Alistier Tay (#12) — 12 points
Thng Jun Rong (#7) — 10 points
Chen Yi (#6) — 6 points
Tan Jun Wei (#8) — 6 points
Foo Chang Hao (#11) — 6 points
Khairul Ridzuan (#9) — 4 points
Bryan Ng (#10) — 2 points

National B Division Basketball Championship — fixtures and results