Story by Zachary Foo/Red Sports. Photos by Lim Yong Teck/Red Sports and REDintern Laura Lee
Justin Yeo (RI #10) goes for the layup against Michael Palero (ACS #7). Justin Yeo led RI with 19 points in the victory. (Photo 1 © Lim Yong Teck/Red Sports)
Jurong East Sports and Recreation Centre, Tuesday, March 6, 2014 — A strong third quarter run helped Raffles Institution (RI) beat Anglo-Chinese School (Barker Road) 68–58 in the final of the South Zone B Division Boys Basketball Championship. Sherman Seet (ACS #10) led all scorers with 21 points, while Justin Yeo (RI #10) chipped in 19 points to spur his team to the win.
Raffles foiled ACS’s three-peat attempt with the win, reclaiming the championship they last held in 2011.
ACS(BR) started the game hot, outscoring Raffles 19–9 in the first quarter. They were led by the hot shooting of Sherman (ACS #10), who scored two three-pointers in the quarter. Justin (RI #10) kept Raffles in the game by scoring six points. He was the only player on the Raffles to find success scoring early on.
The second quarter wasn’t too kind to ACS(BR), as they found themselves picking up five fouls within three minutes. Raffles took full advantage of the penalty situation, aggressively driving to the rim to draw fouls from the ACS(BR) players. This allowed Raffles to stoke a small comeback, as they put up a 19–16 quarter to cut the ACS(BR) lead to seven at the break.
ACS(BR)’s misfortunes continued in the third, as key players Misheel Bayaraa (ACS(BR) #6) and Sherman (ACS(BR) #6) both picked up their fourth fouls. Due to the threat of him fouling out, Misheel (ACS(BR) #6) was forced to concede a couple of easy layups to Raffles. Jovi Lim (Raffles #11) was key to sparking the Raffles comeback, as he dropped eight points throughout the period. Raffles were able to overturn a seven-point deficit into a 10-point lead by the end of the quarter.
Ominously for ACS(BR), Sherman (ACS(BR) #10) fouled out early in the fourth quarter. With their leading scorer out and their key players facing foul trouble, the battle seemed uphill for them. However, they showed real grit to grind out the rest of the game, cutting the Raffles lead down to six at one point. Jin Quan (ACS(BR) #11) valiantly carried his team in the absence of the other key players, but ultimately could not inspire them. The three-year wait for a title finally ended for Raffles, as they took the championship with a final score of 68–58.
RI captain, Shao Jie (#6), said, “The start of the game was pretty tight between both teams. We were able to take advantage of foul trouble on their part to come back into the team. We managed to come together as a team and persevered to win. We are not that experienced, as we have trouble keeping our composure late in games. We have been training hard to fix this and we managed to succeed today. We hope to go as far as we can at nationals, maybe a top-four place.”
Scoring by Quarter
Anglo-Chinese School (Barker Road) vs Raffles Instituion
1st Quarter: 19–9
2nd Quarter: 16–19 (35–28)
3rd Quarter: 9–26 (44–54)
4th Quarter: 14–14 (58–68)
Top Scorers
ACS (Barker Road)
Sherman Seet (#10) – 21 points
Misheel Bayaraa (#6) – 18 points
Raffles
Justin Yeo (#10) – 19 points
Chean Shao Jie (#6) – 18 points
ACS (Barker Road) Roster
Cedric Sim (#4), Ritz Neo (#5), Misheel Bayaraa (#6), Michael Palero (#7), Jonathan Bownass (#8), Kesster Teo (#9), Sherman Seet (#10), Koh Jin Quan (#11), Isaac Kwa (#12), Bryan Ong (#13), Kelvin Frany (#14), Akshay Anand (#15)
Raffles Roster
Ivan Sia (#4), Marcus Soon (#5), Chean Shao Jie (#6), Tristen Zheng (#7), Shivanand Kumanan (#8), Zhang Fuli (#9), Justin Yeo (#10), Jovi Lim (#11), Mark Yeo (#12), Huang Davan (#13), Yang Gan (#14), Danny Goh (#15)
South Zone B Division Boys Basketball Championships — Fixtures and Results
More photos next page
[…] is the second time that the two schools have played against each other on court. In the previous matchup, Raffles sealed the 68–58 victory to halt ACS’s three-peat attempt and clinch the South […]