RI beats East View 80-24

In a game played yesterday, we beat East View Secondary 80-24.

As the game started, we were at first taken by some surprise as East View scored the first two points. We quickly got back in control, however, and took back the lead which we did not lose for the remaining of the match. There was good finishing on the fast break, and we pulled ahead on these baskets and also got alot of our points down low.

The other team looked lost for options save for the occasional rebound by tall man #13. Still, they resorted to flinging wild shots from the perimeter which allowed us to start attacking quickly. We managed to have good bench rotation, with everybody playing a fair amount. The disparity in physical levels could be seen too as everyone had no trouble keeping up physically.

We had the opportunity to practice some defences but it seems that we still have to work on certain aspects of our defence. Overall, it was a good game, and we will certainly be looking to improve on our defence, finishing down low, and most importantly, have fun playing this tournament.

RI beats Yuying 46-28

In our first match after a long hiatus, we played moderately well considering our lowered fitness levels. Defence was good especially with the help on covering their star center. Both sides started the game cautiously with neither side running at high octane for quite a while. Rebounding started out bad as their centers grabbed the boards repeatedly and scored alot of second chance baskets. This slowly improved over the course of the game especially when we upped the tempo, tiring their post players faster.

Things that could have been improved on was our finishing in traffic, we seemed to get easily bumped off on our drives and overly intimidated by the opposing center's arms. Shooting was good as we hit a fair number of three point shots. The star player of Yuying got close to fouling out and eventually had to leave the game due to injury in the fourth quarter. Overall, it was a good game and we will be looking to improve as we progress in the tournament.

Second Chance- Nike Schools' Championship

Just as we have started settling down after our elimination, we received word of another championship, the Nike Schools' Championship, played amongst teams that did not make the Nationals. After some discussion, we decided that we should take part in the tournament, as it would allow us to correct our flaws and improve as a team. More importantly, it would give us another chance to play together as a team.

Stay tuned for news about the matches! First up is Yuying, possibly one of the strongest teams in this competition, with good post prescence.

RI out of B Div Tournament

We apologize to all readers for the late reply, but we were not in the mood to write following our elimination from our tournament then. Here is what happened-

After losing to Gan Eng Seng in the first second round match, we followed that up with a win and then faced a well coached Outram Park, whom we had to win against. However, a key player was injured the day before the match, and it showed as we had a lack of scoring options since we were not hitting our shots that day. Howver, the game was not lost on offence, but rather on defence.

Ultimately, it was a lack of good defence, not just in this game, but in the whole tournament that led to this painful and early exit. We lacked the fundamentals of in your face defence and husetle and effort, things which could have brought us far even without great offensive talent. Focus was also not completely there and we could tell that the team was not as united in our focus as two years ago when we reached the National Final.

For the Sec Fours, this has been our last chance at representing RI, and it is something that we will cherish for a long time. There are things beyond just winning and losing, the friendships that we have forged as a team will certainly last longer than any medal that we could possibly get.