Story by Zachary Foo/Red Sports. Photos by Louisa Goh/Red Sports.

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Muhammad Irfan (GYS #15) attempts to shoot against NJC. (Photo 1 © Louisa Goh/Red Sports)

PESEB, Monday, June 30, 2014 — Guangyang Secondary (GYS) beat National Junior College (NJC) 66–28 in the first round of the South Zone C Division Basketball Championship. Wong Yi Jian (GYS #6) and Gerald Lim (GYS #12) led all scorers with 12 points apiece.

The win puts Guangyang joint-top of Group C with a 1–0 win–loss record. They are tied with Raffles Institution for the lead in the group.

Guangyang pressured NJC right from the start, giving them little space to operate their offence. This forced NJC turnovers, which they capitalised on with fast breaks. Yi Jian (GYS #6) scored a couple of early points, using his speed to beat NJC players down the court for easy layups.

The second quarter saw Guangyang dominating on the offensive boards, as their players showed more hunger in snagging the rebounds. Each time they got the ball, they would push the ball up court as fast as possible. This slowly wore out the NJC players, as they struggled to keep up with the Guangyang tempo. Guangyang held a comfortable 34–14 lead heading into the second half.

Guangyang completely dominated in the third quarter, putting up 19 points compared to NJC’s four. This was due to NJC players slowly succumbing to fatigue. They allowed a lot of easy layups in the paint.

The final quarter saw NJC put up more of a fight. They were able to score double digits in the quarter. However, this proved to be too late. Guangyang secured a 66–28 to start their season, setting the tone for what would be a successful campaign this year. This is in stark contrast to their performance last year, where they lost all their games in the first round. They will next face Outram Secondary on Wednesday, July 2 at 3.50 pm at PESEB.

Guangyang captain, Wong Yi Jian (#6), said, “We played badly last year when we lost all our games, so it was good to start off with a win. Our defence was quite poor as we committed a lot of fouls. There is room for improvement on that part. In our future games, we plan to win via big margins. We hope we can get to nationals and hopefully net the title.”

Scoring by Quarter
Guangyang Secondary vs National Junior College
1st Quarter: 18–5
2nd Quarter: 16–9 (34–14)
3rd Quarter: 19–4 (53–18)
4th Quarter: 13–10 (66–28)

Top Scorers
Guangyang Secondary
Wong Yi Jian (#6) – 12 points
Gerald Lim (#12) – 12 points

National Junior College
(#9) – 5 points

GYSS Roster
Jerry Tan (#4), Brunio Louie James Bacomo (#5), Wong Yi Jian (#6), Brandon Chung (#7), Lin Jia Xian (#8), Darren Tan (#9), Nowis Xu (#10), Larry Lim (#11), Gerald Lim (#12), Cassidy Tan (#13), Lin Wei (#14), Muhammad Irfan (#15)

NJC Roster
We were unable to obtain the roster for National Junior College. If you recognise any of the players, please post them in the comments below and we’ll update the post. Thanks.

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