By REDintern Rebecca Yip
Ashwin Ravi (#10) of Nan Hua High in action against Juying. Nan Hua qualified from Group C in second place behind Jurong. (Photo © Chong Ng/Red Sports)
As the final group games in the West Zone C Division Basketball Championship commenced on Monday, July 9th and Tuesday, July 10th, some teams had already gained enough points to qualify for Round 2, while others had their fates hanging until the final game.
Here is a summary of the drama that went down on the final day of Round 1.
Group A
Teams: Unity Secondary (1st), Westwood Secondary (2nd), Pioneer Secondary (3rd), Hong Kah Secondary (4th), Chesnut Drive Secondary (5th)
Unity were the favourites to finish first in Group A, being the defending West Zone and National champions. They showed why they deserved that title when they won all four of their group games by at least an 80-point margin.
Determining who joined Unity in Round 2 boiled down to the very last game of Group A between Westwood and Pioneer. Both teams had identical 2-1 win-loss records. Emotions ran high on court and off the court as the teams battled it out, but Westwood overcame Pioneer with a convincing score of 38-16 after Pioneer were restricted to just one point each in the second and third quarter.
Group B
Teams: Bukit Panjang Government High School (1st), Jurong West Secondary (2nd), Choa Chu Kang Secondary (3rd), Zhenghua Secondary (4th), Dunearn Secondary (5th)
There was a similar situation in Group B as in Group A. Bukit Panjang Government High won all their group matches to top their group, but the second spot was up for grabs in the final group game between Jurong West and Choa Chu Kang. Choa Chu Kang put up a good fight, but went down 40-56 to Jurong West, missing out on a spot in Round 2 this year.
Group C
Teams: Jurong Secondary (1st), Nan Hua High School (2nd), Greenridge Secondary (3rd), Hua Yi Secondary (4th), Juying Secondary (5th)
Jurong topped Group C, winning four out of four, including an imperious 94-0 thrashing of Juying. Nan Hua High were relatively unchallenged and took second spot comfortably with a 3-1 win-loss record, their only loss coming against Jurong.
Group D
Teams: New Town Secondary (1st), Clementi Town Secondary (2nd), Boon Lay Secondary (3rd), Assumption English School (4th), Hwa Chong Institution (5th), Kranji Secondary (6th)
In this group of death, there were as many as three teams vying for the coveted second spot in the group. New Town had already qualified with ease after winning all five of their games.
Clementi Town, Hwa Chong and Boon Lay would have had identical 3-1 win-loss records if Clementi Town lost to top-of-the-table New Town, and Hwa Chong and Boon Lay had won their last games against Assumption English School and Kranji respectively.
However, Assumption English School upset Hwa Chong 28-21 to kill off the latter’s hopes of qualifying for Round 2. After Clementi Town lost to New Town and Boon Lay beat Kranji, both Clementi Town and Boon Lay were level on 8 points with identical 4-1 records. However, it was Clementi Town that moved into Round 2 because they beat Boon Lay 22-21 when both teams met.
Group E
Teams: Teck Whye Secondary (1st), School of Science and Technology (2nd), Tanglin Secondary (3rd), Bukit Batok Secondary (4th), Commonwealth Secondary (5th)
The top two spots in Group E had already been determined before the final day of games on Tuesday, July 10th. Both Teck Whye and School of Science and Technology were each undefeated in three games, leaving the mouth-watering clash between them as a match up to see who would finish first in the group.
Teck Whye won that battle 49-33, coming from behind to snatch the top spot from SciTech.
Group F
Teams: River Valley High (1st), Hillgrove Secondary (2nd), Jurongville Secondary (3rd), Swiss Cottage Secondary (4th), Fajar Secondary (5th), Yuan Ching Secondary (6th)
River Valley High topped Group E with 10 points, winning all their games for a perfect 5-0 record. Hillgrove Secondary joined them in the second round after beating Fajar 44-17 on Monday, July 9th, in their last group game.
P.S. Round 2 started on Thursday, July 12th.
West Zone C Division Basketball Championship – Round 1 full fixtures and results
West Zone C Division Basketball Championship – Round 2 groupings and fixtures
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