Story and pictures by Leslie Tan
CCAB, Friday, February 15, 2008 – Raffles Institution (RI), on the brink of elimination from the first round, stunned Catholic High 52-51 to secure their passage into the second round of the South Zone Basketball Championship.
RI’s were facing the prospect of a first round exit after they lost 44-45 to Henderson earlier in the week. This left them having to beat the formidable Catholic High team in their final group game to qualify for the second round.
The first quarter was played at a frantic pace, with both teams playing full-court pressure defence at every opportunity. RI’s defensive intensity caused Catholic High to turn over the ball a few times and when Catholic High did break through, defensive blocks by RI’s #4 and #12 particularly on Catholic High’s Jabez Su (#4) ensured that RI stepped off the court leading 12-7 at the end of the first quarter.
The answer from Catholic High came swiftly in the second quarter when they scored seven unanswered points to 15-12 up before RI scored again. With 4:15 left in the quarter, Catholic High still led 17-16 but the defending B Division champions were not allowed to pull away by RI in a quarter that was still characterised by high-tempo, full-court defensive tactics. At half-time, Catholic High held on to a slim 21-20 lead.
It was RI’s turn at the start of the third quarter to make their statement when they scored four points in a row to lead 24-21 but Jabez Su tied it up at 24-24 for Catholic High with a 3-point play when he was fouled on a lay-up. With 3:54 left in the quarter, Catholic High edged ahead 28-26 but the strain was beginning to show on their players as some of them were bent over with their hands on their knees as they tried to catch their breath during a timeout. By the end of the third quarter, RI had pulled ahead 35-31, with Wang Jia Cheng (#15) of RI making his big physical presence felt in the defensive zone as well as scoring crucial baskets to put his team ahead.
The fourth quarter saw RI pull ahead and they led by eight points at one point at 41-33. With tiredness setting in after playing at breakneck speed earlier, both teams started to open up, giving each other space to shoot open shots. Catholic High narrowed the gap with a couple of three-pointers, and RI’s lead was cut down to two points at 43-41.
With 4:25 left on the clock in the fourth quarter, RI were leading 48-45 when a fifth personal foul was called on Jonathan Cher, causing the Catholic High coach Oh Thian Soon to erupt in frustration because he believed that it was another Catholic High player and not Jonathan who had committed the foul. The umpire steadfastly refused to change her mind and Jonathan had to come off to be replaced by Sathy (#12).
With 1:49 left, RI still led 52-47 but Catholic High clawed back three points to make it a one-point deficit. With 29s left, Wang Jia Cheng (#15) drew a foul and went to the line to shoot. He missed both shots, giving Catholic High one last chance to attack and score. But try as they might, Catholic High could not score with the ball in their possession for the last 20s and when the buzzer sounded for full-time, the RI bench erupted in a mixture of joy and relief, leaving the Catholic High players to contemplate their first loss for the first time in as long as anyone could remember.
“Our coach told us to believe we could beat Catholic High today,” said RI captain Yeo Si Yuan (#8). “We had a nervous start but we made our shots count. It’s a huge boost beating Catholic High but we will take one step at a time.”
As a result of this victory, RI top their group with Catholic High second. Both teams qualified for the second round, leaving Henderson, despite having a similar 3-wins-1-loss record as RI and Catholic High, missing out on qualification by virtue of having lost to Catholic High 42-91 in an earlier group game.
Both RI and Catholic High are expected to meet again in the final of the South Zone Championship if all goes to form, and it will be a game that both supporters and neutrals will await with great anticipation.
Match statistics:
1st quarter: Catholic High 7 RI 12
2nd quarter: Catholic High 14 RI 8
3rd quarter: Catholic High 10 RI 15
4th quarter: Catholic High 20 RI 17
Top scorers:
Catholic High:
Jabez Su (#4) – 20 pts (2x3pt)
Jason Pok (#8) – 15 pts
RI:
Wang Jia Cheng (#15) – 20 pts
Ravins Cheung (#11) – 12 pts
If you know the names of the players mentioned, please leave them in the comments section and we’ll update the captions and story. Thanks.
More pictures in the gallery.
RI is probably a better discipline school than CH but what shit is this that RI has longer hair players then CH and in the end everyone still thinks that RI is better in discipline than CH and in the end people will think that CH people are feirce and strict and then they don’t want to go there. And being a friend of a CH guy , I seriously think that CH’s haircheck is totally stupid especially on the fringe. Everyone has different type of hair. There are fringes that grow upwards, there are fringes that grow downwards to the eyes. And MX’s fringe is the type that grows upwards. And NO he isn’t using any wax to put it up or whatever. But the haircheck teacher just PRESSES IT DOWN and. OH! FAIL ! WHY SO LONG AHH?! GO CUT!! Well, come on. I’m sure that you teachers yourself also like looks right? Imagine MX without a fringe. He’ll look like some small boy or some kid if you take a picture of him without his body size. And KamSeng (KS) failed for what? Although there are people with weird hair or whatever hair may still be nice right?
Discipline is very important. To the guy who mentioned about the teacher who sits comfortably in the aircon office. You got all the facts wrong. That teacher is a PE teacher who probably sweats more than you. Cat high is a premier school which has a set of strict school rules. To them, winning isnt everything. The character development of the players is far more important that a mere match. Any players who represent the school should be able to follow the rules that is expected from them. There is simply NO excuse, especially if it is so trivial as having a hai cut. There are many ah beng schools out there featuring ill-disciplined players with atrocious hair styles, do not expect Cat High to be like one of them.
A champion can never sustain the championship forever, but i don’t see anything about to congrats about.
haha! the champion finally falls. congrats.
The extra pictures from the CH vs RI game are in the gallery:
http://redsports.sg/gallery/
They were accidentally put into the netball section of the gallery initially.
xxx, do YOU have a problem?
Just because CHS won 3 years in a row doesn’t mean it will this year. Talking in that fashion will only portray yourself as someone of low intelligence who cannot accept a loss and is trying to make up for his ego by acting very big in an ONLINE FORUM, which is VERY HELPFUL in bringing your point across.
Anyway, moving to the topic of hair, I basically agree with Statistician, who worded the matter very well. It’s not like cutting hair is a huge matter and if they fail, they fail. If it’s the school’s policy to ban players because of this, then they should be banned without exception, though one can argue the policies present in the first place is unfair/unreasonable/etc.
Ok, i’ll stop aggravating the matter.
But den im just so pissed that they banned people becos of a small matter.
why both of the teams are wearing dark jersey??
Rikuza, please stop aggravating the matter please, just let it rest.
Oh, and the guy who banned ah seng and ming xuan even tried to ban the VBallers too, becos of haircheck.
CHS players don’t be sad!
I mean, ah seng and ming xuan trained so hard and in the end, what happen?
Got banned by a stupid haircheck? I JUST CANT BELIEVE THAT!
What? Hair cut = conduct in school?
I don’t think so. Ming Xuan and Ah Seng are very VERY hardworking students in school, as they noe if they don’t work hard, they’ll lose out to other students.
Those 2 people are good athletes as well as good students, so the reason to ban them is HAIRCHECK?
And to kopio, they failed cos some1 press their fringe down, as in, REALLY down.
both of the teams are wearing dark jerseys?.
dont be arrogant if u win….
chs will stil win u alll
u think of going to nat??????
is it possible?????
i heared that the rugby team 2 key player would be banned too becoz of discipline, and they are playing finals…
cut hair will die? lose also lose already. talk so much for what. something to watch for this year. will cath high suffer another defeat? we shall see…