National Schools A Division Championships- Guys QF Game 1 vs Hwa Chong Institution
- Report written by Justin Yeo and edited by Mr
- May 4, 2016
- 2 min read
This was the first Quarter Finals round robin game of our championships and this match-up was a repeat of the 2015 A Division Finals. We knew the games from here onwards would not be an easy one as all opponents are strong and would be up for it. Moreover, HCI would probably want to avenge their finals loss last year and would be giving their best to leave their mark on the QFs with a win. Thus, over the past week, we prepared ourselves well mentally and physically especially with Justin and Vignesh returning to the squad after their representation for the National U18 Team for the recent SEABA tournament in Medan.
We started the game off strong in the first quarter as we made our first basket in less than a minute and quickly built up a double digit lead. We did this by executing excellent passing, feeding the post players and kicking it back out for open shots, making their 2-3 zone defence work extra hard. In addition to that, we were accurate with our shooting in the first quarter, nailing 3 three pointers in the opening period alone.
However, towards the end of the quarter we had a couple of lapses, resulting in the opponents narrowing the gap to a 9 pt lead, 19-10, into the 2nd quarter.
However, in the 2nd quarter, we were unable to find our groove and only managed to score a underwhelming 4 points for the entire quarter. Although we were unable to get our shots to fall in the 2nd period, we kept our defensive intensity up and ensured that we did not get outscored in the quarter. We managed to keep our opponents scoreless throughout the whole quarter, and took a 23-10 lead into half-time. In the second half, things got back to normal as we started taking and making good shots, resulting in us stretching our lead and never looking back. Finally, we ended the game with a scoreline of 50-26.
Though we won the game and played good defence to limit our opponent’s scoring opportunities, we had a very low total Field Goal Percentage of 34% (despite a good 1st quarter). We also managed to get 16 steals whilst only giving up 17 turnovers. Our defence was definitely a major factor in helping us win the game.
Buoyed by this opening win, we look forward to our next game which will be against Meridian Junior College which will be just 2 days away. Not much rest time as the games are coming really fast and furious.
Redsports Coverage of this game can be found here.
Points by Quarter:
1st 2nd 3rd 4th
RI 19 4 8 19
HCI 10 0 8 8
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