By Rebecca Yip/Red Sports

scgs vs nanyang girls' c div bball national final (6)

Charmaine Koh (#13) of SCGS lays up for two past Liwen (#14) of Nanyang Girls’. Charmaine finished with a game-high 18 points and won MVP honours in the final. (Photo 1 © Les Tan/Red Sports)

 

Jurong East Sports Hall, Thursday, August 23, 2012 — Singapore Chinese Girls’ School (SCGS) crushed an off-form Nanyang Girls’ High by 27 points (53-26) to emerge victorious after nine weeks of competition in the South Zone and National C Division Basketball Championships.

SCGS consistently outscored Nanyang for the last three quarters for a convincing victory. In addition, three of SCGS’ players — Charmaine Koh (#13), Bernice Yeo (#4) and Janissa P. Saurin (#12) — individually scored more than Nanyang’s top scorers.

SCGS’ top scorer was Charmaine Koh (#13) with a game-high 18 points, while Nanyang’s two top scorers, Charmian Cheah (#13) and Lim Boon Yee (#12), had six points each. Charmaine (#13) was also named the tournament’s MVP (Most Valuable Player).

Unlike the outcome of the game, the first quarter was a close affair with both teams tied 11-11 at the end of the first 10 minutes. SCGS started the match with a bang, with Janissa Saurin (#12) opening the scoring with a 3-point shot.

SCGS subsequently carved out a five-point lead, but Nanyang swiftly caught up to trail by two at 3-5 halfway through the first quarter. Nanyang were relatively slower than SCGS in getting their offensive rebounds, but SCGS’ inaccuracies in front of the basket helped Nanyang create more shooting chances.

After Janissa’s (#12) 3-point shot, Charmaine Koh (#13) put in the rest of SCGS’s 11 points in the first quarter. She managed to cut through Nanyang’s tight defence with relative ease and was a force to be reckoned with for the rest of the match.

Nanyang’s Charmian Cheah (#13) and Sheryl Ng (#4) added a 3-pointer each to their team’s score to level with SCGS at 11-11 by the end of the first quarter.

However, the subsequent quarters were a different story as Nanyang faltered when faced with fierce defending by SCGS, especially from Ceres Suwe (#9) and Ong Li Ping (#15). The whole SCGS team stuck to an intimidating man-on-man defence throughout the match and managed to prevent Nanyang from attempting a shot before the 24-second shot clock expired on multiple occasions.

Nanyang seemed out of sorts and were not even close to the standard of play that they had when they beat Dunman Secondary in the semi-finals. Nanyang’s top scorer, Charmian Cheah (#13), who has consistently put in more than 10 points per game in the Nationals, could only manage to score six points for her team, all of them coming in the first quarter. She also uncharacteristically missed all eight of her free throws in the third quarter.

The devastating SCGS defence restricted Nanyang to scoring only one point in the second quarter as SCGS took a 19-12 lead into the half-time break.

SCGS were unstoppable once they warmed up by the third quarter. Nanyang’s play was riddled with mistakes, from bad passing to travelling calls, and SCGS mercilessly capitalised on them to lead by as many as 20 points. At the end of the third quarter, SCGS were up 37-19 as Nanyang could not cope with their teamwork and speed of play.

SCGS’s Bernice Yeo (#4) put in seven consecutive points in the fourth quarter, making her the game’s second top scorer with 13 points.

SCGS established the largest lead of the game with only two minutes to go on the clock, when Carisia Lee (#7) scored to give SCGS a massive 29-point, 51-22 lead.

SCGS eventually finished off the game with a final score of 53-26 and the girls in white celebrated by jumping, screaming and hugging each as their supporters cheered for them in the background.

The win made SCGS captain, Rachel Mok’s (#6) birthday extra special, with the supporters breaking out in a birthday song for her.

Speaking after the match, Rachel said: “I’m very very happy that we won. We played really hard because we knew what we wanted from the start, which was to be National Champions, and we kept working towards our goal. We definitely played better than in the previous match [In Round 2, where SCGS beat Nanyang by a mere four points].

“From playing with Nanyang many times, we knew that they were a strong team and we needed to work hard to beat them. I am just very happy that we won.”

Her aspirations for next season is to make it into the Nationals Top 4 again and to strive to defend their new title.

Nanyang’s captain, Sheryl Ng (#4), was visibly upset after the match and admitted that the team was off today.

She said: “We just didn’t perform well. We came in wanting to win but we weren’t up to standard. I don’t know what happened [from the 2nd quarter onwards]; I don’t know if it was the crowd, but we just didn’t perform.”

She thought that SCGS deserved to win the final, said a gracious Sheryl.

“All of them went for every ball and they were even diving on the ground just to get the ball. We could see that they really wanted it,” added Sheryl.

However, she added that silver was already a big achievement for a team that was knocked out in the first round last year.

“We definitely grew a lot and we’ll continue to grow next year,” said Sheryl.

Score by Quarter
SCGS v Nanyang
1st Q: 11-11
2nd Q: 8-1 (19-12)
3rd Q: 18-7 (37-19)
4th Q: 16-7
Final: 53-26

Top Scorers
SCGS
Charmaine Koh (#13) – 18 points
Bernice Yeo (#4) – 13 points
Janissa P. Saurin (#12) – 10 points

Nanyang
Charmian Cheah (#13) – 6 points
Lim Boon Yee (#12) – 6 points

SCGS Roster
Bernice Yeo (#4), Tiana Ng (#5), Rachel Mok (#6), Carisia Lee (#7), Lim Yin Yan (#8), Ceres Suwe (#9), Sophia Ang (#10), Low Yi Xuan (#11), Janissa P. Saurin (#12), Charmaine Koh (#13), Sevilla Chea (#14), Ong Li Ping (#15)

Nanyang Roster
Sheryl Ng (#4), Zhimin (#5), Weiwen (#6), Chloe Yan (#7), Boon Jiahwee (#8), Natasha (#9), Rachel Wong (#10), Dalini Viktoria Rajandhran (#11), Lim Boon Yee (#12), Charmian Cheah (#13), Liwen (#14), Yushin (#15)

National C Division Basketball Championship – full fixtures and results

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