Clementi Sports Hall, Wednesday, July 15, 2009 – The lack of supporters at the competition venue due to the precautions taken over the H1N1 flu virus certainly did dampen the atmosphere somewhat.

Added to that, teams also saw a drop in training time and cancellations of friendly matches during the crucial June holidays leading up to the start of the National C Division Basketball Championship because schools were cutting down on group activities to prevent community spread of the virus.

Thankfully, though, some shining performances by the teams that qualified for the nationals did light up the day’s proceedings.

The North Vista C Division boys had one of the better showings. Pitted against second seeded Catholic High School, they fought back from a first quarter 8-14 deficit to jump to a twenty-point lead at one stage in the fourth quarter, through some strong inside play by North Vista centre Myron Lim (#11).

Catholic High did make the game interesting with a rally in the final few minutes, but they never looked likely to close the huge deficit with time running out.

North Vista eventually beat Catholic High 59-47 to give themselves the advantage in an extremely competitive Group A for boys.

Singapore Chinese Girls’ School was another team that defied the odds. Despite coming in third in their zone, they led the entire way against second-placed Jurong(in the West Zone) in a low-scoring game. The Jurong girls, it must be said, had many opportunities to put the game away, but failed to find the basket.

Instead, it was left to SCGS #8 who admirably shouldered her team’s scoring burdens and led SCGS to a close 33-23 victory.

Another girl who excelled in the first day was Manjusri Secondary’s #10. Showing deft dribbling skills, she hauled her team back from a 10-point deficit with accurate 3-point shooting. Unfortunately though, it proved not enough as Compassvale Secondary justified their North Zone crown with a close 59-53 victory.

Enjoying a huge margin of victory, on the other hand, was Unity Secondary.

One of the favourites for the C Division boys title this year, Unity Sec romped to a comprehensive 80-50 win over Dunman High.

Unity Sec had a field day as their girls’ team also recorded an impressive 61-23 win over Deyi Secondary earlier. Together with Zhonghua Secondary girls’ big 52-25 win over Dunman High, both the Unity and Zhong Hua girls look odds-on favourites to advance to the next round.

Dunman High though, must surely be consoled by the fact that both their boys’ and girls’ C division teams have qualified for the nationals, displaying a vast improvement over their showings in the previous years.

For a detailed list of the C Division basketball national competition results, click here.