BASKETBALL
National ‘A’ Division 3rd/4th placing games
Anderson Junior College vs Temasek Junior College (Boys)
Anderson Junior College vs Hwa Chong Institution (Girls)
Monday, 21 May 2007 at the Singapore Basketball Centre
Story by Red Sports reader Mr Joseph Chin, a student from Anderson Junior College. Thanks, Joseph!
AJC’s no.10 in action during an earlier round game. © Leslie Tan/Red Sports
AJC’s travelling support were left wondering what happened this season after 2 depressing defeats in the basketball 3rd/4th placings at the Singapore Basketball Centre this afternoon. In the girls’ match, AJC were convincingly beaten 41-65 by Hwa Chong Institution (HCI) while the boys went down 46-78 to Temasek Junior College (TJC).
In the girls’ game, an encouraging 1st quarter at 12-9 quickly led to a frustrating run for AJC as they ended the first half 15-31 down. Things were to become worse in the 3rd quarter when the extremely fit HCI players wore down the AJC team for a 48-24 lead. By the 4th quarter, HCI were content to bide their last 10 minutes and block the occasional attack by the spirited AJC players. HCI seemed to lack bite in that quarter but they even had the squad depth to overhaul their team with fresher legs. The tired AJC girls tried to fight back but they left too high a mountain to climb to conclude at 65-41.
Things weren’t much better for the boys. Needing to restore some pride in front of their sizeable fanbase, they were outplayed by TJC for most of the game. After a tentative 5 minutes, TJC took advantage of AJC’s somewhat off-colour finish to go lead at 14-7 when the game’s only time-out was called. As far as TJC was concerned, AJC’s over-reliance on their inspirational captain Yan Ming (no. 6) was countered by pulling out all the stops in defending his incisive passes. AJ tried fighting back but went ended the first quarter 14-22 down.
TJC simply tormented AJC with their fast paced attacks, while taking advantage of AJC’s many misses. Even as AJC barely tried to hang on with 3 pointers, TJC were clinically sinking in shot after shot. By then it was 37-27 to TJC.
By the break, AJC’s stress level was rising as they fumbled many shots. The third quarter saw TJC pulling away with a 59-34 lead, having outplayed the AJC players in many aspects. AJC were resorting to desperate attempts at the basket. Even as AJC tried to fight back they were constantly defended very well against by the TJC players and they finally went down 46-78.
Finally, it’s time for the final on Friday, 23 May 2007. But I think I will let the Red Sports crew do the job. Good luck to the teams and nice try AJC!
to “realcool”, the cute point guard u were talking abt should be alvin kang. he was a j1 last yr but he transferred to poly after his first yr in tj. do watch out for him in home united for milo cup!
And I think u misinterpreted my point, IJC. I meant that we only had 7 fit players to choose from to use as 5 of our players, some being main players, were genuinely not fit to play, and this is not by our choice. Im not saying that our coach only chooses 7 out of the 12 players to put on court. But its alright, IJC, ur point is taken. Hope u have a good match vs HC later today.
Lol. Okayy. Point taken.
Haha if you would like to put it this way, IJC only has 5 players who play more than 95% of the game
Yo no disrespect to HC and TJ which are both top class A div teams, but AJ has top quality players as well.
Lim Yan Ming wld have been a hot favorite for MVP if AJC werent so unlucky in the semis.
We also got a great outside shooter in Kiang Li Rong and solid post players Andy Lee from Unity and Patrick Lim from Cat High.
And AJC is the team which fought the closest match with HCI this season, losing by the smallest margin of 15pts. In addition, we ended the game with only 7 fit players. Anything cld have happened if all 12 our players were fit.
hmms.. that chen zhi hao was from which secondary school ?? cchs ?? ( main )
i think tjc and hwa chong main players are all good. around the same i think. but hwa chong just got better play on the court.
at least tjc has got joshua weixiong limzhihao(12) chenzhihao(7)
and hwachong obviously have those good combined school YEAR 1s players.
Yea i can confirm Chen Zhi Hao was C boys MVP for his batch.
Hes not combined sch cos hes foreigner from china.
Hes from my pri sch laa.
apparently everybody knew that the TJ no 7 is veri pro (heard that he’s a MVP in sec sch), so alot of teams do full court man mark on him, no chance to perform. But i tink he’s still veri gd.
Btw, in last yr’s TJ team, there’s this veri cute point guard which is quite good, he shud be a J1, so J2 this year, but i dun see him in the team, any ppl can tell me why?
no lar.. hwachong still better in standard. their stamina imba.. 4 ppl from combined schs leh. shengyu chonglin rongkang calvin.. tj got 2 still ok lar.. but so disappointed no.7 chenzhihao nv get in
The AJC boys team had a long season which certainly took alot out of them. They suffered a shock defeat to JJC in the first round, and bounced back strongly in the next two matches to win by convincing margins. They were then drawn into the Group of death in the quaterfinals with three other traditional A division basketball powerhouses. They survived the group with resolute performances against VJC and SAJC, giving HCI a good run for their money as well. It took alot out of them and the semi final loss to IJC dealt a huge blow to them as well. Turned out AJC simply ran out of steam in the 3rd/4th match. All credit to TJC, but AJC did play their hearts out and used up whatever was left in the tank and there is hence no shame at all in the defeat. It simply was just one of those days their shots just couldnt fall and their opponents’ just couldnt miss.
Well done to the AJC for being only one of the two JCs with their boys’ and girls’ teams for breaking into the top 4 this year. AJC will be back stronger and hungrier next season. Watch out, world. =)
I think Player is correct.They played amazingly well, with no pressure on their backs. Surely, they will win hwa chong by a mile. Well done and next year we want to see you in the finals!
I think today TJC showed their true standard, with this standard, they would have beaten hwa chong easily. TJC will strike again next year i believe. Don’t let your guard down on them.
expected results but seems like there are “rubbish time”. it dun sounds as interesting as we thought it will be. haizz anyway congrats to all 4 teams for putting up good effort.