Story By REDintern Zachary Foo

North Vista’s 2012 team in action against Presbyterian High. They managed to avenge their 68–73 loss to Presbyterian High last year with a 61–40 victory this year. (Photo © Vanessa Lim/Red Sports Archives)

 

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Singapore Basketball Centre, Tuesday, August 6, 2013 — After going down to Presbyterian High in last year’s final, North Vista Secondary exacted their revenge by beating them 61–40 in the final of the North Zone C Division Boys’ Basketball Championship.

In the 3rd and 4th place match, Seng Kang Secondary beat Christ Church Secondary 47–39.

We recap each team’s journey to Nationals.

North Vista Secondary
A perennial powerhouse in the zone, North Vista have consistently finished in the top four every year. They progressed easily from Round 1, posing easy wins over opponents in their group and going undefeated. The only exception came against Woodgrove Secondary, where they posted a close 36–29 win.

Round 2 was more of the same story, as they posted a perfect 5–0 win-loss record. The highlight must have been the 51–29 beat-down they dealt to fellow top-four team, Presbyterian High.

In the semi-finals, they faced the same foe they had at the same stage last year, Christ Church Secondary. However, North Vista showed how strong they were by beating them 74–38, a significantly larger margin as compared to last year. This set up a rematch with Presbyterian High in the final.

The 2012 final ended 73–68 in Presbyterian High’s favour but it was a different story this year with North Vista emerging 61–40 winners. They will be hoping to continue their momentum heading into Nationals, after failing to make the semi-finals in 2012.

Presbyterian High
As defending zonal champions, Presbyterian High went into this campaign looking for a repeat. They sent out a statement of intent in Round 1, as no team was able to put up more than 30 points on the board against them while they averaged 50 points per game to qualify first in their group.

Presbyterian High encounterd a minor slip up in Round 2, where they lost to North Vista 29–51. However, they did not encounter any problem with the other teams in the group, romping to comfortable margins of victory in the rest of their games. This allowed them to qualify second in the group, behind North Vista.

In the semi-finals, they faced newcomers Seng Kang Secondary whom they beat 49–37 to set up a rematch with 2012 runners-up, North Vista. However, North Vista are a different team this year, and Presbyterian High went down 40–61 to them.

Christ Church Secondary
Christ Church made the semi-finals last year and they produced a top-four performance again this year. They managed a close 27–26 win against Yio Chu Kang Secondary to post an unbeaten record in Round 1.

In Round 2, they were drawn in a group that had a resurgent Seng Kang Secondary, along with 2012 semi-finalists Ahmad Ibrahim Secondary. They took down Ahmad Ibrahim 53–25 and lost a close game 32–40 to Seng Kang. They qualified second in the group to come up against a familiar face in the semi-final, North Vista Secondary. All hopes of making the final were dashed when they were soundly beaten 74–38 by North Vista. Christ Church will be looking to shed their ‘whipping boy’ label this year in Nationals, after bottoming out their group in the first round last year.

Seng Kang Secondary
After missing out a year of Nationals in 2012, Seng Kang have turned that disappointment into a motivational spark that has seen them finish third in the zone this year.

Round 1 saw them drawn into a group that included powerhouses North Vista. Although they dropped the game to North Vista, they managed to pull off close wins against Woodgrove and Chung Cheng High (Yishun) to punch their ticket into the second round.

The next round was where Seng Kang found their groove, posting an unbeaten record in the group, along with an emphatic 40–32 win over last year’s semi-finalist, Christ Church Secondary.

Their dream run was stopped by Presbyterian High in the semi-final, the defending champions showing their pedigree with a 49–37 victory.

This relegated them to a rematch with Christ Church in the 3rd and 4th placing match, where they again defeated them by the same 8–point margin as in the group stage.

Seng Kang will be hoping to at least match their performance in 2011 when they reached the second round.

North Zone C DIvision Boys’ Basketball Championship – fixtures and results