Catholic High overcome Peirce Secondary for final showdown with RI in B Boys South Zone basketball

Story by Ian Chew. Photos by Lai Jun Wei.

CCAB, Monday, March 3, 2009 – Now that the dust generated by the B Division South Zone Basketball Championship has settled, Catholic High will once again face arch-rivals Raffles Institution for the south zone honours.

Catholic High took their place in the final after they beat a spirited Peirce Secondary 89-68 in their South Zone basketball semi-final.

Yet the path to the final was littered with contenders falling by the wayside, including schools with good basketball pedigree like Yuying Secondary and Guangyang Secondary in the first round as well as Gan Eng Seng Secondary in the second round.

Peirce were the latest to fail to qualify for the final, losing to Catholic High 68-89 in this semi-final, though they did put up such a fightback in the final quarter.

The game looked like a blowout from the start. Peirce were in total disarray as they nervously passed the ball several times into the grateful hands of their Catholic High opponents, who finished with consummate ease.

Catholic High ended the first period with an incredible 28-4 lead. It was evident that Catholic High eased off the pedal considerably in the next two quarters, yet still managed to increase their lead to 70-43 by the end of the third.

For a period of time in the fourth, Peirce embarked on a zonal full court trapping defense which unsettled the Catholic High team into several turnovers.

Royson Quek (#5) of Peirce used this window to score five of his game-high 19 points while teammate Zuo Kuan (#6) added 13 points of his own.

However, that was not enough to overcome their first quarter deficit. Catholic High's bench came off for a few minutes in the final quarter but the scores were hardly altered as the gap remained a comfortable 20 points.

In contrast, Raffles Institution had to wait till the final minutes to confirm their final placing with a close 74-67 win over Queensway Sec. Queensway will play Peirce Secondary in the 3/4th placing match at CCAB on Wednesday, March 4th, 2.30pm.

The championship final will take place on Tuesday, 10 March, 2.30pm at the Yio Chu Kang stadium.

Top Scorers:
Chong Ming Xuan (Catholic High, #14) – 21 points
Wong Kam Seng (Catholic High, #11) – 19 points
Royson Quek (Peirce, #5) – 19 points (three 3-pointers)
Dominic Lim (Catholic High, #10) – 16 points

See highlights of the first half:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPZwkt_xyKU

Editor's note: If you recognise yourself or your team mates in any of the photos, please feel free to leave the names behind in the comments section and we will update accordingly. Thanks!