B Division Basketball: Unity see 32-game, two-year winning streak end against Dunman

By Les Tan/Red Sports. Research by Erwin Wong/Red Sports

Unity Secondary saw their 32-game winning streak in the B Division come to an end when they went down 41-53 to Dunman Secondary last week in a 1st Round game in the National B Division Basketball Championship.

Unity, the defending B Division champions, put together their winning streak during the 2010 and the current 2011 season. They won 13 straight games this season prior to their defeat by Dunman and in the 2010 season, they went unbeaten in 19 games to clinch the national championship.

“We just played badly,” said Unity captain, Wong Keng Yang, about their game against Dunman on Tuesday, April 5th.

Only Catholic High has had a longer B Division winning streak in recent memory when the Bishan-based school won 41 games in a row from 2005 to 2008.

After losing to Unity in the second round of the national championship in 2005, Catholic High went unbeaten until they lost to Raffles Institution by one point in the first round of the South Zone championship in 2008.

The defeat against Dunman left Unity second in their first round group. Although they qualified for the second round, they found themselves in a group that included East Zone champions, Anglican High.

In a game played last Friday, April 8th, Unity were pushed all the way by Anglican High before winning 60-56.

Centre Delvin Goh led Unity with a game-high 28 points, with 10 of those points coming in the second quarter for Unity to lead 29-18 at half time.

Unity were still ahead by 13 points (46-33) at the start of the fourth quarter but the East Zone champions made life difficult for the defending champions and drew to within one point (56-57) when the Anglican High #4 sank one of two free throws with 6.6 seconds left on the clock.

A Delvin Goh free throw gave Unity a two-point 58-56 lead but the drama was still not over.

Unity again had possession but could not score and as the ball rebounded off the board, Tan Jun Wei (AHS #6) won the rebound. However, before he could launch a final Anglican High attack to tie up the game, Unity’s Wong Keng Yang stripped him of the ball and laid up for two with 4.3 secconds left to make the game safe at 60-56.

“Anglican High are aggressive and fast, especially on the fastbreak, but we were able to defend,” said Keng Yang.

The slim victory and last week’s loss to Dunman leaves Unity looking vulnerable for the first time in a long while.

Unity will next play Ngee Ann Secondary on Monday, April 18th in their Group X game.

In another Group X game played on the same day, New Town Secondary beat Ngee Ann 49-39.

New Town will next take on Anglican High on Monday, April 18th.

National B Division Basketball Championship — 2nd Round fixtures and results

Anglican High 56 Unity 60
1st Q: 6-13
2nd Q: 12-16 (18-29)
3rd Q: 15-17 (33-46)
4th Q: 23-14
Full Time: 56-60

Top Scorers
Anglican High
Sherwin Yen (#5) — 16 pts
Tan Jun Wei (#6) — 11 pts
(#8) — 7 pts (1 x 3-pts)

Unity
Delvin Goh (#14) — 28 pts

Go to next page for more photos