Contributed by reader Erwin Wong

CCAB, Friday, February 20, 2009 - Raffles Girls' School cruised into the B Division South Zone Basketball Championship semi-finals with an easy 49-22 win over Guangyang Secondary School in a girls Group X match-up today.

However, the defending B Division champions will have to be on the top of their game for the full 40 minutes against Cedar Girls' Secondary School in the final-4 game on Monday, as RGS had ´spurts of disorganisation' in the match today, according to team captain Hannah Ng.

In full flow, RGS were quite the epitome of how basketball should be played. Tenacious in defence, silky-smooth in free-flowing transition offence, coupled with individual brilliance from players like Hannah, the 2008 B Division Most Valuable Player. However, their dreams of repeating as Zone and National champions might be derailed if they do not keep to that.

A couple of careless turnovers highlighted the early going for RGS, and they struggled to find their rhythm as they trailed 1-3 after 4 minutes. Two free throws from #8 Steph then sparked a 7-0 run, handing them the lead which they never relinquished.

Guangyang's back court of #11 Xue Fen and #14 Tan Jia Mei found the going tough as RGS #12 Liyong held her own in the paint. A 3-pointer from Guangyang's #10 Charmaine Lew halved the deficit, but a bank shot from RGS's #13 Rachael gave her team a 10-6 lead after 1 quarter.

The second period saw #9 Hannah and #11 Deanna, holdovers from last year's championship-winning team, enter the fray and stamp their class all over the match. A brilliant right-hand hook shot from the latter was the first field goal of the quarter, and Hannah followed that up with a defensive rebound and a coast-to-coast dribble, capping the play off by dishing to Steph for the easy two, making it 14-6.

Hannah then continued her dominant play, grabbing her own offensive rebound after splitting a pair of free throws, and then extending the lead to 17-6 on an offensive put-back on the same play.

Meanwhile, Xue Fen was well-policed and her trademark drives down the lane were restricted to a minimum by a resolute RGS defence. She was so kept in check to the point that she only made a single field goal while her other 4 points came from the free throw line. Two of those freebies cut the RGS lead to 19-8, but those were the only points that Guangyang managed all quarter. Charmaine, their point guard, was completely shut down by her opposite number, #6 Yan Ping.

Guangyang, who were simply overwhelmed by the superiority of their opponents, chalked up two more shot clock violations in the quarter and allowed 4 consecutive offensive boards by RGS, who went on a 9-0 run the rest of the way to lead by 20 at the end of the half.

With their season on the line, Guangyang came out in the second half hustling tirelessly for loose balls and rebounds, but RGS stood their ground. Liyong poured in 6 straight points to boost their lead up to 26 as Guangyang were dealt a setback when Charmaine went to the bench early in the period with 4 fouls. But her team scored 6 straight as well with a couple from downtown by #6 Natalie and #8 Carmen.

Charmaine finally fouled out two and a half minutes into the final quarter, as Guangyang managed to hold the defending champions scoreless for more than 4 minutes. However, their first points of the period summed the game up for RGS: Hannah procuring another offensive board and converting a turnaround jumper which banked in. The diminutive Natalie, who is Secondary 2 this year but already inducted into the B Division team, reduced the deficit to 39-20 with another trey, but Steph and Liyong scored all the points in a game-ending 10-2 run.

Though Guangyang were outclassed in both their second round matches, having previously lost 6-32 to Singapore Chinese Girls' School, they have reason to be proud of their effort, having improved on previous year's showing by advancing to Round 2 but coming up on the short end of the stick by being drawn into a group with the first- and third-placed teams in last year's B Division nationals.

"We played much better today than in the previous match (against SCGS)," Said Guangyang's coach Mr Soh Sin Chye. "After that match, I sought to improve their fundamentals, and against a much better opponent (than us) today, we aimed to have less turnovers and to score as many as we could. We met those expectations. For next year's competition, we hope to maintain our progress to the second round or possibly go even one step further."

For RGS, they already have made that step ahead, as they prepare for their semi-final match with Cedar Girls' on Monday.

"We played badly today, as we couldn't convert many under-basket shots as well as other open shots," Said team captain Hannah. "The ball also slipped through our fingers many times today. But we will train very hard and prepare ourselves for the tough challenge ahead (in the semi-finals)."

Scoring breakdown by quarter:
Guangyang vs RGS
1st Q: 6-10
2nd Q: 2-18
3rd Q: 8-9
4th Q: 6-12
Final: 22-49

Leading scorers:

Guangyang:
Xue Fen (#11) 6 points
Natalie (#6) 6 points
Charmaine Lew (#10) 5 points

RGS:
Steph (#8) 13 points
Liyong (#12) 11 points
Hannah (#9) 8 points