BASKETBALL

South Zone ‘C’ Division Championship 2007
Anglo-Chinese School (International) vs Peirce Secondary
Friday, 13 July 2007 at CCAB

Story by Leslie Tan. © Red Sports/soulbreath pictures

Pictures by Red Sports volunteer, Lai Jun Wei, a student photographer of Innova Junior College. Thanks!

Han Francisco of Anglo-Chinese School (International) calmly sank two free throws in the dying seconds of an intense fourth quarter to ensure his team beat Peirce Secondary 55-53 in a ‘C’ Division basketball game last Friday.


Jerry Toh of Peirce is challenged by Ken Nugroho of ACS.   © Lai Jun Wei

Good defence marked a tight 1st quarter that saw ACS walk off with a slim 9-7 lead. While defence led the way, both teams struggled to shoot consistently. ACS also struggled with defensive rebounds, at one point in the quarter losing three defensive rebounds in a row to Peirce. Leading 9-6 late in the first quarter, Peirce went on the offensive with a full-court press but the ACS team had the presence of mind to play their way out intelligently by opening up space for themselves and hitting the open man.

In the 2nd quarter, a nice transition from defence to offense saw ACS move the ball to their open player, #9 Jonathan Ng, who let fly with a jump shot. He missed his shot but ACS recovered the rebound through Han Francisco who drew the foul. He sank the two free throws to bring the score to 11-7 with 8:26 remaining on the clock. Han Francisco again made an attack count with a charge through the paint for a layup at 6:29 on the clock to make it 13-7 for ACS.


Lee Zuo Kuan of Peirce concentrates on a free throw.   © Lai Jun Wei

Despite good defence, Peirce could not convert their possession and fast breaks into points. At 6:02 on the clock, Peirce had three shots in a row, won all three rebounds, but still could not score. Then all of a sudden, Peirce woke up. #10 Lee Zuo Kuan of Peirce drove along the baseline for an under-the-basket attempt to finally score the first points of the quarter for his team at 4:44 to make it 9-13. Then Zuo Kuan again made an easy layup on a counter-attack to bring his team to 11-13 before teammate #13 Cheng Kam Ler added two more for a score of 13-13. Zuo Kuan then put Peirce into the lead for the first time with another layup on a fast counter-attack to make it 15-13. Peirce had turned their game around very quickly with eight unanswered points. Then they went back to sleep just as quickly because ACS regained the momentum to score three points from #14 Leonard Ishak and Han Francisco.


Han Francisco of ACS lays  up for two.   © Lai Jun Wei

Zuo Kuan drew first blood for Peirce at the start of the 3rd quarter with a two to make it 17-18. #8 Darren Tan of ACS then raised cheers from his bench with a 3-point play after getting fouled while nailing a two to make it 21-17 in ACS’ favour. Darren then won an offensive rebound when teammate Han missed with a layup to take ACS further ahead to 23-17. #12 Bernard Chow of Peirce then hit back with two to make it 19-23. Han then missed two free throws but won his own rebound and dropped two more points to make it 25-19 for ACS. Jonathan Ng of ACS then hit a jumper and got a chance for 3-point play but missed his free throw. Nonetheless, ACS were now leading 27-23. Zuo Kuan then came back for Peirce with two successful free throws, narrowing the gap to four points at 23-27 but Leonard Ishak of ACS made sure his team kept comfortably in front with a good basket after Han carved open the defence with a strong charge and found him open. 29-23 in ACS’ favour.

Darren Tan then pulled ACS even further ahead with a layup to make it 31-23, leading to a timeout call by Peirce to regroup. Peirce were feeling frustrated especially with the rampaging Han Francisco. The timeout proved fruitful, with Peirce outscoring ACS 6-1, narrowing the gap to three points with the score at 29-32. ACS then turned more aggressive, pegging Peirce down at their own backline with their combination of Darren Tan and Han Francisco giving Peirce the runaround and stretching ACS’ lead to 36-31. By the end of the third quarter, ACS were leading 38-35. Key to their lead was the play of Darren Tan and Han Francisco who were both calm and skillful enough to find space for themselves or drive to the basket successfully, drawing defenders to them and freeing up their teammates for easy jumpers.


Leonard Ishak of ACS tries for two.   © Lai Jun Wei

Peirce however were not giving up without a fight with Zuo Kuan again the main scoring player for them, scoring on a layup early in the fourth quarter to narrow the gap to one point at 37-38. Peirce continued the fight with #15 Lowell Leong dropping two free throws to keep pace with ACS at 39-40. Jonathan Ng of ACS then freed himself from a 2-man defence to score two points, drawing a foul but missing the free throw. 42-39 to ACS.

ACS then stretch their lead further to ten points through Darren and Han again to lead 49-39 with six minutes to go in the quarter. But Peirce keep coming back. #6 Jerry Toh of Peirce had a 3-point opportunity but he missed the free throw to make the score 41-46. Then his teammate Lowell Leong grabbed a rebound, drew a foul and dropped both free throws to narrow the gap to five. 43-48.

With ACS leading 51-43, Peirce called a timeout and it worked. Lee Zuo Kuan and #11 Tan Baiyong of Peirce combined to score five straight points to narrow the gap to three points at 48-51. #10 Maurice Sam of ACS then had the opportunity to steady ACS nerves when he drew a foul but he missed both free throws and the score remained at 51-48. Then Jerry Toh of Peirce missed an outside jump shot followed by two missed free throws from Darren Tan of ACS. With 1:29 left on the clock, ACS’ Han Francisco dished out a pass to teammate Darren who dropped two points on a layup to finally change the static scoreline to 53-48 in their favour.
 


Lee Zuo Kuan of Peirce (in black) goes for a layup while Ken Nugroho of ACS (in white) looks on.   © Lai Jun Wei

Then Peirce mounted an exciting comeback to draw level at 53-53. First Zuo Kuan got one of two free throws to make it 49-53. Then teammate #2 scored two with a layup to make it 51-53. With tensions mounting, Zuo Kuan then drew a foul and scored one of two free throws to make it 52-53. Jerry Toh then continued the Peirce fightback by drawing a foul and scoring one of two free throws to make it 53-53 with 38s left on the clock. It was then Zuo Kuan’s turn to draw a foul but with the scored tied at 53-53, he crucially missed both free throws.

This time, it was ACS who called a timeout to regroup. Coming back on court, ACS kept their heads and possession of the ball. When the ball found itself in the hands of Han Francisco, the ACS #5 drew a foul with a 6s left on the clock. Han then coolly scored both of his free throws to finally see off the Peirce challenge and secured a 55-53 win for ACS.

Peirce:

#4 Jonas Tay
#5 Tan Kok Tiong
#6 Jerry Toh
#7 James Cheong
#8 Lee Meng Da
#9 Shih Ting Yu
#10 Lee Zuo Kuan
#11 Tan Baiyong
#12 Bernard Chow
#13 Cheng Kam Ler
#14 Gerald Wong
#15 Lowell Leong

ACS(Int’l):

#4 Daniel Leung
#5 Han Francisco
#6 Cleon Tan
#7 Ken Nugroho
#8 Darren Tan
#9 Jonathan Ng
#10 Maurice Sam
#11 Levin Woosnam
#12 Aviel Tan
#13 Han Kyung Ho
#14 Leonard Ishak


Editor’s note: Let us know the names if we haven’t identified you or your teammates properly. Thanks. More shots in the Picture Gallery.