The recently concluded zonal competitions for basketball certainly served up some surprises for players, supporters and neutrals.
In the North Zone, Ahmad Ibrahim Secondary stunned the prevailing favourites like Woodlands Ring Secondary and Seng Kang Secondary to capture both the B Division boys and girls title. In the process, powerhouse Presbyterian High School, last year’s C Division National Championship runners-up, were sensationally eliminated from the national competition. They lost out narrowly to the Ahmad Ibrahim boys and then lost the crucial decider to Seng Kang to go out early in the zone’s second round.
In the East Zone, the Anglican High boys pipped the highly fancied Chung Cheng High (Main) to the championship title with a close 73-72 score. Their female counterparts had set the tone earlier with a big win over Bedok North Secondary.
In the West Zone, all eyes were on the traditional powerhouses like Jurong Secondary, Unity Secondary and Nanyang Girls High School. However, no one could have forseen how New Town Secondary muscled their way to both the boys and girls zonal finals. The New Town girls had sensationally edged out Nanyang Girls in the semi-final 48-47 to earn a place in the final. Although the West Zone newcomers eventually lost out in both the finals, they can definitely be proud of their achievements this season.
Jurong Sec predictably won the West Zone boys’ final with a better overall team performance, albeit by a razor thin margin. Unity Sec won more comfortably 60-47 in the girls’ final.
In the South Zone, Raffles Institution had teetered on the brink of elimination when they lost to Henderson Secondary by a point in the first round. However, they managed to defeat defending champions Catholic High School by a point in their final group game to salvage their season. Buoyed by the close escape, RI then continued their run to finish third in the zone, surprisingly beating Gan Eng Seng Secondary in the third and fourth placing match. Catholic High, on the other hand, bounced back from their first round loss to win the South Zone title in devastating style against Queenstown, confirming their status as favourites for the national title.
Raffles Girls’ School also displayed their strength-in-depth when all twelve registered team players managed to get on the score sheet for the zone final match against Yuying Secondary. Though Yuying are a team with quite a few talented players, RGS affirmed their status as favourites with a comprehensive 31-point margin of victory in the final.
Now all eyes are on the national draw at Jurong Secondary on Friday, March 7. A nightmare scenario could emerge where Anglican High, New Town, Woodlands Ring and Gan Eng Seng are drawn together in the same group, since they finished first, second, third and fourth respectively in their zones. That would certainly be the “Group of Death”. We’ll have to wait till Friday to find out.
North Zone (Boys)
1st – Ahmad Ibrahim
2nd – Seng Kang
3rd – Woodlands Ring
4th – Chung Cheng High (Yishun)
North Zone (Girls)
1st – Ahmad Ibrahim
2nd – Anderson
3rd – Nan Chiau High
4th – Yishun Town Sec
East Zone (Boys)
1st – Anglican High
2nd – Chung Cheng High (Main)
3rd – Ngee Ann
4th – Dunman High
East Zone (Girls)
1st – Anglican High
2nd – Bedok North
3rd – Chung Cheng High (Main)
4th – Dunman Sec
West Zone (Boys)
1st – Jurong
2nd – New Town
3rd – Unity
4th – Assumption English
West Zone (Girls)
1st – Unity
2nd – New Town
3rd – Nanyang Girls’
4th – Hua Yi
South Zone (Boys)
1st – Catholic High
2nd – Queenstown
3rd – Raffles Institution
4th – Gan Eng Seng
South Zone (Girls)
1st – Raffles Girls’ School
2nd – Yuying
3rd – Singapore-Chinese Girls’ School
4th – Whitley
Girls (Group A)
Ahmad Ibrahim Sec
New Town Sec
Chung Cheng High (Main)
Whitley
Girls (Group B)
Raffles Girls
Anderson Sec
Nanyang Girls High
Dunman Sec
Girls (Group C)
Anglican High School
Yuying Sec
Nan Chiau High
Hua Yi Sec
Girls (Group D)
Unity Sec
Bedok North
Singapore Chinese Girls
Yishun Town
Boys (Group A)
Anglican High
Queenstown
Woodlands Ring
Assumption English
Boys (Group B)
Jurong Sec
Chung Cheng High (Main)
Raffles Institution
Ching Cheng High (Yishun)
Boys (Group C)
Ahmad Ibrahim Sec
New Town Sec
Ngee Ann Sec
Gan Eng Seng Sec
Boys (Group D)
Catholic High
Seng Kang Sec
Unity Sec
Dunman High
actually home ground really had advantage
haha scarly next time play at ngee ann or dunman sec, cos gonna have indoor sports hall ma. Dunman sec i dont know but ngee ann will have air-conditioned sports hall ! Hall will be up at ard august. 😀
aiya nationals then will know but AHS group so easy(assumption english,woodland rings,queenstown),thou CCHMSgroup also quite easy but still got JURONG
lol,that is why the government is executing the PRIME programme,where the government would help schools to build indoor sports hall,ok i cant disagree that AHS not good but as in home court got alittle bit advantage,somemore at home the crowd more enthusiastic and there is obviously a larger crowd.
AHS are a good team , its just that playing at home gives them more confidence. it;ll be cool seeing them in a new atmosphere though.
erm althought u say hm court got more advantage but if they nt strong at all,they wont even make it to final.pls la hw many sbc u wan singapore to build right so bo bian must put at AHS mah…if your sch gt better enviroment u can call up sba people and say u will like to let them use your sch.then u got advantage lor
Would u say that if AHS didn win?ure just jealous.
u beat NBA in ur home court la?
Then u show me how zhun ure in ur home basketball court lor.
AHS zhun means Zhu,win mean win.tok so much like you at your sch very accurate like tat…
yaya,go SBC good,official court mah,even soccer dey at home court usually win de lah,jus see champions league,playing at home court is an advantage,i tink the bas shud hold zonal competitions in each zone the main basketball centre,then nationals all go toa payoh sports hall,central of singapore.u jus look at NBA,ABA,NCAA almost each and everi sport as long as u r at home court,u got the advantage,so wad if got played a few times there,lets say i play there 2 matches before,then the home team at least played once per week?
i m sorry,typo..its *they would be accurate*
i think what james said is logical,although they had homeground advantage..doesnt mean u would be accurate rite?not every ball u shoot will end up in the net.Its due to their training.And the seniors really played very hard..if u seen the last quarter u would know what i m talking.I cant deny that colin is good,cause hes really fast and strong,and a threat to the defenders.1 point doesnt really make a difference..A stronger team vs a weaker team with homeground advantage,who wins?What do u think?
error James, they’re 2006 Cdiv nats champ.
it take skills to be first leh
I think you guys are pretty immature to say such things. Anglican may have undoubtly have a slight advantage over the rest of the teams in the East, and that is not doing them any good because they do not get a chance to learn how to adapt to the different rims and environment during the nationals, while they at the same time provide the other schools with the facilities to allow the others to get a feel of what is it like to play in their stadium and expose them to the different kind of playing environment. Also, all the teams have already visited Anglican High for the competition for a few times and that should give them ample time to adapt to the environment. The school’s Boys won because they fought hard, not because they were plain lucky and cause it’s their “homeground”, and for the Girls, you cant really criticise them because if I am not wrong, this batch was the 2004 C Division Nationals Champs. What kind of results do you expect from them? Besides why dont you go criticise those teams playing at SBC or at Clementi, doesnt that give them a bigger advantage because the Nationals competitions are held at either one of these places? Please do not let words slip out from your mouth without first thinking. I believe any team which has the capabilities will be able to play to their maximum potential at any kind of surroundings.
seriously AHS, haiyo is abit unfair towards othrs,
like that AHS more confident cause they know surroundings well wad,
UNFAIRNESS!
eastball you are talkin with no supporting statement lo .. lame .. if they win ? hahahas..