RGS thrash St Margaret's Secondary in girls’ South Zone basketball

Story by Erwin Wong. Pictures by Vanessa Lim

CCAB, Friday, February 6, 2009 - Defending B Division basketball champions Raffles Girls' School steamrolled their way past group strugglers St Margaret's Secondary School 69-20 in a girls’ B Division South Zone Basketball Championship Group A match.

As fellow B Division champions Catholic High did earlier today, RGS were slow off the blocks from the get-go, and led only 6-4 at the end of the first quarter. However, they made up for their stuttering offence with a suffocating defence that led to their opponents not being able to get a shot off on numerous occasions.

RGS' high-intensity offence finally got going from the second quarter onwards. A timeout early on had the 5 RGS players on court doing pushups, something which senior players Hannah Ng (#9) and Deanna Ng (#11) would only comment as ´punishment'. It proved effective enough to shake off their languid start, as #8 scored 10 points in this period, the last of which gave her team a 25-13 lead at half-time.

It was more of the same when play resumed, as St Margaret's were completely overwhelmed on the boards, resulting in countless fast-break points and put-back baskets for the group leaders. A quick 14-1 run in the first five minutes of the second half extended the RGS lead to 25. Although St Margaret's battled hard, they were simply outplayed by their better opponents.

The end of the third quarter offered scant respite to the floundering St Margaret's team, which faced continual onslaught by RGS in the final period. A flagrant-1 foul on RGS #10 by St Margaret's #13 further compounded their misery, and a breakaway layup by Deanna accounted for the final score of 69-20 to RGS.

"Defence was our priority, because we know our offence isn't good. We wanted to minimize the RGS scoring in the second quarter, and keep their margin of victory to 20 points or less," St Margaret's coach Mr Winston Choo said after the match. Though they did not manage it, and thus bowing out of this year's competition having lost all four group matches, they can look forward to next year's edition, as they have a crop of promising Secondary Twos playing in the C Division this year.

RGS, with three wins in three games, play their final group match against Queensway Secondary School next Friday.

Scoring breakdown by quarter:

RGS vs St Margaret’s
1st Q 6:4
2nd Q 19-9
3rd Q 23-6
4th Q 21-1
Final score: 69-20

Leading scorers:
Raffles Girls':
Deanna Ng (#11) – 19 points
#8 – 15
#10 – 10

St Margaret’s:
(#8) – 8
(#11) – 4

Editor's note: If you recognise yourself or your teammates in any of the photos, feel free to leave the names behind in the comments section and we will update accordingly. Thanks!