Story By Zachary Foo/Red Sports. Photos by REDintern Rebekah Abbott
(NJC #9) catches the rebound among the sea of RI players. (Photo 1 © REDintern Rebekah Abbott)
Guangyang Primary School, Wednesday, February 5, 2014 — Raffles Institution (RI) scored a lopsided 83–25 win over National Junior College (NJC) in the first round of the South Zone B Division Boys Basketball Championship. Justin Yeo (RI #10) led all scorers with 18 points.
RI raced out to an early lead in the quarter, although it was due to the mistakes of NJC more than their own effort. Sloppy passing by NJC players caused them to turn the ball over to RI, which promptly brought the ball down the court on the fast break for easy scores. The length of Danny Goh (RI #) helped to disrupt the NJC passing lanes, causing them a lot of trouble in bringing the ball up court. The quarter ended with RI out to a 21–6 lead.
The second quarter was more of the same story with RI breaking out a 10–0 run to start the quarter. NJC had a torrid time, as they were unable to advance the ball past their own half at all. They finally managed to break their scoring drought six minutes into the period. Throughout the period, sloppy passing continued to plague NJC, with the team seemingly lacking any cohesion at all. Half-time arrived with RI up 41–13 going into the break.
Early on in the third quarter, both teams seemed to have trouble finding the basket. RI had close looks, but were unable to convert their shots. NJC on the other hand, managed to find their way into the RI paint, but made too many forced shots that missed. This continued until RI finally managed to score a basket on the fast break, which opened the floodgates for the team.
The final quarter was but a formality for RI, as they put away the game for good. Utilising the full-court press at every opportunity, they summarily suffocated NJC and denied any hopes of a miraculous comeback. RI emerged 83–25 victors and will proceed to the second round of the championship.
RI captain, Jovi Lim (#11) said, “I think we did well on the offensive side today. We played better than in our previous two games. We’ve already qualified for the second round, so we hope to be able to finish as zonal champions and go deep in our nationals run. We were defensively slow at times today, so that is something we can work on for our future games.”
Scoring by Quarter
National Junior College vs Raffles Institution
1st Quarter: 6–19
2nd Quarter: 7–22 (13–41)
3rd Quarter: 4–18 (17–59)
4th Quarter: 8–24 (25–83)
Top Scorers
National Junior College
(#11) – 8 points
Raffles Institution
Justin Yeo (#10) – 18 points
National Junior College Roster
We were unable to acquire the NJC roster in time from the team. If you have the team list, please feel free to share them in the comments section below and we will gladly include them in this post.
Raffles Institution Roster
Ivan Sia (#4), Marcus Soon (#5), Chean Shao Jie (#6), Tristen Zheng (#7), Shivanand Kumanan (#8), Zhang Anli (#9), Justin Yeo (#10), Jovi Lim (#11), Mark Yeo (#12), Huang Daran (#13), Yang Gan (#14), Danny Goh (#15)
More photos next page
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