Story and photos by Low Zheng Yu/Red Sports
Choo Jieying (RI #8) drives for the easy basket. She had a game-high nine points. (Photo 1 © Low Zheng Yu/Red Sports)
OCBC Arena, Wednesday, April 26, 2017 — Raffles Institution (RI) cruised past Serangoon Junior College (SRJC) 47-12 in the National A Division Basketball Championship.
With this win, RI remain unbeaten with a 4-0 win-loss record. They defeated River Valley High School (RVHS), Tampines Junior College (TPJC) and Eunoia Junior College (EJC) previously and will advance to the second round as winners of Group W.
This game is SRJC’s first loss of the season and they drop to a 3-1 win-loss record. They defeated RVHS, TPJC and EJC previously and will advance to the second round as runners-up of Group W.
RI got off to a slow start. They were not making their shots despite several open looks. However, whatever they were lacking on offense, they made it up on defense. RI hustled hard for every ball and were able to limit SRJC to just two points in the quarter while they scored eight themselves.
RI started to find their rhythm in the third quarter. Choo Jieying (RI #8) scored six straight points followed by a three from Sophia Ang (RI #9) to allow RI to greatly increase their lead. RI also continued their stellar defensive performance to stop SRJC from scoring.
While SRJC displayed commendable efforts to overcome RI, the defending champions held their ground. They continued to play well on the defensive end to stop SRJC and scored off their turnovers. This led to the gradual increase of RI’s lead.
With no answer to RI’s defense, SRJC were not able to cut the RI lead. RI eventually cruised past SRJC 47-12.
RI’s captain, Choo Jieying (RI #8), commented, “I think we started off slow but we managed to get into the game in the second half. I felt we fought hard for every ball but we could still have done a lot better. Definitely, we still have a lot of areas to work on.”
“Going into the second round, I think our greatest challenge would be Hwa Chong and NJC. Not to forget Dunman High and VJC as well. But every school has their own strengths so we got to work hard for every game.”
Scoring by Quarter
RI vs SRJC
1st Q: 08-02
2nd Q: 09-02 (17-04)
3rd Q: 14-04 (31-08)
4th Q: 16-04 (47-12)
Top Scorers
RI
Choo Jieying (#8) – 9 pts
Sophia Ang (#9) – 8 pts
SRJC
Cheong Xin Ting Amanda (#17) – 8 pts
RI Roster
Shannon Tiong (#0), Jeannine Tang (#5), Rhianne Vaz (#7), Choo Jieying (#8), Sophia Ang (#9), Shalleeni R (#10), Kelly Tan (#11), Yi Han Lin (#12), Sofia Tan (#13), Shriya Chettiar (#15), Aisling Lum (#18), Rachel Yeo (#21)
SRJC Roster
Tan Jia Hong (#5), Joyce Tan Hui Ling (#7), Nicole Beh (#8), Liaw Siew Ting (#11), Tan Yi Lin (#12), Xuan Lin (#15), Qin Kailin (#16), Cheong Xin Ting Amanda (#17), Najihah Bte Salim (#22), Loke Hui Xian (#23), Ruth Leong En Hui (#30), Akila Suresh Raja (#99)
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