Ying Wa College basketball team settled their score with Diocesan Boys' School (DBS), but were unable to match the skills of South Korea's Jeonju High School in the final of the Reebok Asia Cup last weekend.
Ying Wa suffered a shock loss to DBS in the championship game of the All-Hong Kong Jing Ying tournament last December, and had been seeking a re-match.
Their chance for revenge came in the semi-finals of the Asia Cup at the Southorn Sports Centre in Wan Chai last Saturday. Ying Wa made no mistake this time, thrashing their Kowloon rivals 80-46.
But in the title-decider, the locals struggled to compete with the taller Koreans, whose superior skills led them to a 101-85 victory. It was also a Korean team - Samil High School - who won the inaugural crown last year. National champion school teams taking part in the second Asia Cup also included Minokamo High School (Japan), Shanghai Nanmo High School (China) and the Malaysia Challengers (Malaysia).
Ying Wa had placed third in last year's Asia Cup tournament in Guangzhou, so the second-place finish showed they had progressed, said assistant coach Law Hon-leung.
'We wanted to match or better last year's result,' he said. 'The standard of the competition is quite high. You have some of the best high school teams in Asia here. In Japan and Korea, there are many more schools than in Hong Kong, and there are many more clubs, so of course, the level is going to be higher, as there is more competition.'