Story and pictures contributed by reader Ian Chew.
Singapore Basketball Centre, Monday, May 12, 2008 – Hwa Chong Institution underlined their status as favourites with a comprehensive 62-37 win over Temasek Junior College in a National A Division Championship quarter-final game.
Yet, according to HCI forward Yap Ching Poh, it was a crucial match for the team.
“Both sides wanted to win this game so as to have a chance to top the group. This will give us a more favourable draw in the semi-final,” he elaborated. He scored 7 points for his team while centre Lin Shengyu led all scores with 19 points. Poon Chonglin also contributed 11 points.
Hwa Chong used a 22-8 spurt in the third quarter to blow the game open. Although the boys form Temasek put in a greater defensive effort in the fourth quarter, restricting the Hwa Chong team to 7 points, they were unable to recover from the deficit.
In another quarter-final match, Anderson JC edged out Raffles JC to confirm for themselves a place in the semi-finals.
Despite a 23-point production from Raffles’ Zheng Feng (#8), including five 3-pointers, Anderson JC’s 14-8 second quarter score proved crucial in propelling the team to a narrow 62-55 win. Anderson’s #9 led his team with 19 points.
Teams in this group, while striving to qualify, will also be looking to avoid Hwa Chong in the semi-finals. The final round of quarter-final matches will be played on Wednesday 14 May.
Hell yes, Yan Ming and i were AJ Bball teamates last year. He is one hell of a great person and leader and dam right hes one hell of an owning player man. Finals next thursday. Sure, HC will be tough, but hey, AJ bball has always been at the top too. Lets go AJ team!
Yeah. I agree. Yanming and I were school mates for 2 years and I can testify how great a player he is, on and off pitch.
2 years ago we keeled over under pressure. WE NEVER FORGET
weixian and yanming are both bravo players. aj stand a chance to get into finals this yr..
haha what’s wrong with the hc players? i think they generally conduct themselves well on court and haven’t done anything erring of gd sportsmanship.
lol HC will confirm cruise past the rest.. just look at the way they play personally i dont like HC players but there’s no denying how good they are.. champs this year for sure.
nj and ij confirm out…
Maybe to conserve their energy for the Bt Timah Derby against NJC. Derby matches are tougher than you think. As far as I’m concerned, once NYJC is all done with, AJC will have 1 tough match to go before the battle royale against HCI. Till then, all the best!
HC fang shui. put water.
I wouldn’t say that HC cruised past TJ. TJC put up a real good fight but their shots jus fell short. They forced HC into committing many turnovers, so kudos to TJ for their effort today!
Woo weixian ! ngee ann legend . own at JC level
i thought that aj’s win was abit more convincing than the score suggested.. anyway, well done aj! im proud you all put in one hell of a good fight! go yanming go weixian! go aj team! lastly, i cant believe lee zhishu isnt selected for the combined schools.
i think raffles jv should be raffles jc o.o
weixian killed rjc with his offensive rebounds and put backs, damn pro, no wonder in xue lian! #6 yanming shoot 3 pointer like siao keep scoring…
rj #10 and #8 scored like nearly all the points for rjc both scored like almost 10 3 pointers super exciting…. bu donno know why#10 jing xue lian then #8 didnt get in xuelian with him leh…
meant “teammate”
Rawrr, haha thanks, just fixed it.
Um I’m sure it’s just a typo but, why does chonglin have his own team?? (third para)