A Div Girls: RJC 71 vs IJC 9

The RJC girls played a good game on friday to beat Innova JC 71-9

It was a good opportunity for each player to gain some match experience, especially for the younger J1s, and also improve on our team cohesion in preparation for future matches. Overall the team played well but not without some hitches here and there. There is definitely much room for improvement and we are confident that we will continue to do better in the matches to come.We are picking up our pace and gaining good momentum for the rest of the season.

Within the group for the A Div Girls, AJC beat SAJC on friday, so RJC and AJC will be advancing into the next round.

The RJC girls play AJC on Wednesday 2pm at Clementi Sports Hall.

A Div Girls: RJC beat IJC (by a lot)

A Div Boys: RJC 38 vs HCI 54

A Div Girls

RJC 52 vs SAJC 47

The A Division Girls fought hard today to secure for ourselves a win against SAJC.
It was a close game with a score difference of about 3-6 in the first half but we managed to pull away in the third quarter, gaining a comfortable lead in excess of 10 points. But SAJC fought back in the fourth and caught up quickly.

This is our first challenging match of the season and the experience we have gained from this match will surely help us in our future matches against more formidable opponents.
May we 精益求精 and fight on =)

Our next match will be against IJC this friday, 2.40pm at Clementi Sports Hall.




RGS 59 vs Anderson 62
On a separate note, the B Division Girls from RGS lost in the finals today against Anderson, but their fighting spirit was extremely commendable. The girls had a bad start in the first half, trailing by more than 20 points in the second quarter, but managed to fight back and close the difference to a mere 2 points in the last quarter.

It was a heartbreaking loss, but the girls' never-say-die fighting spirit was truly one to be proud off.
Well done girls.

All the best to the A Div boys for their match this Friday. Believe in yourselves and fight hard so you can all walk tall and proud, with no regrets, regardless of the outcome.
dream, team, fight, then win.

"A" Div Gals

RJC 44 vs NYJC 20

RJC girls won their first game in the "A" Div Basketball Competition. They are in Group A with: SAJC, AJC, NYJC & IJC

Group B: VJC, JJC, TPJC, SRJC, NJC
Group C: HCI, ACJC, YJC, MI, TJC

Next match
Wednesday 1300hrs
RJC vs SAJC @ Clementi Sports Hall

Stand Up and Fight!

It was my 3rd crushing loss in 3.5 months - that painful loss to Outram Sec by 1 point; so near and yet so far with Serangoon Gardens in the NIKE Finals; and today the loss to Innova JC for the A Div.

Guys (A Div), STAND UP and FIGHT!

This is only your 1st loss of the season. If there is reason for you to give up, then I should have buried myself underground a long time ago.

JC2s, you've never made it past the zone competitions before. This year everything looked promising. You are not going to give up just because you messed up the first match?

STAND UP and FIGHT! Get up and prepare to play HCI. Track record does not matter - their past championships do not matter. Let's go out there and redeem yourselves.


Groupings
A: HCI, IJC, RJC, YJC
B: AJC, CJC, ACJC, JJC, NYJC
C: TJC, NJC, MI, SAJC, MJC
D: VJC, TPJC, SRJC, PJC, ACS (I)

A Div Basketball First Round

RJC versus IJC (Innova JC), 20th April

The first match of the year for the A Div has ended. To our dismay, RJ has lost to IJC. (score: 45-57). First two quarters started off reasonably well, with us trailing behind and managed to take a lead of 8 points. However, things went downhill near the end of the 2nd quarter. Unnecessary fouls were made, getting cut past easily, no rebounds etc. Rebounds and underbaskets were mostly dominated by the opponent's number 13. Personally, I feel that the number 13 was phyiscally better than us. Many turnovers , like mis-passing, were also made which lead to a few fastbreaks by the opponents.

Overall, our mindset during the game was not up to standard. Yes, we do want to win, but it seems like the opponents want it more than us. The next match will be HCI at CSH (Clementi Sports Hall) at 4.10pm.

Good points:
- defence intensity was there

Bad points:
- no rebounds
- lots of turnovers (unforced)

To the A Div: Lose is lose, whatever that happened today can only be blamed upon ourselves. However, lets not let it affect us. The season is not over yet. There's still HCI and YJC. Get our minds set, rekindle the fire to fight and win, and achieve victory. We have trained so hard, so we aren't gonna drop our heads and sulk, are we?

Introducing C Div 2007

C Div Match Report--RI vs Deyi

C Div Basketball Friendly: RI vs Deyi Secondary
18/4/07

@Raffles Institution Basketball Court

Final Score--RI 86: Deyi 41

The heated game was marred with tension between both teams and against the referee, with a combined total of 36 fouls committed, and a number of players fouling out from the opposing side. In the first quarter, RI played excellent defense and strolled to a commanding 24-4 lead. In the second quarter, RI let in some easy baskets but still maintained a margin of about 20 points, with the first half ending at 41-16 in RI’s favour. The second half started a rotation of the whole RI bench, and a total of 14 players got to play for the home side. In the third quarter, the opposing no. 14 managed to get some open looks and made the points count. The fourth quarter sparked a ferocious RI revival, overpowering their opponents to end the game with an 86-41 victory. There was a fifth quarter which RI won in the end. All in all, the guards played well and the posts made a commendable effort combining together for 35 points and a huge number of offensive rebounds.

Learning points:

1. Communication on defense—improved but still room for more
2. Jam the cuts—especially for the guards
3. Post defense—front the man/ bend low and put your arms out
4. Better boxing out
   

RJC 2007 A Div Campaign

RJC "A" Boys have been drawn with:

1. Innova JC
2. Hwa Chong Institution
3. Yishun JC

20 Apr, 1400hrs, RJC vs IJC @ Singapore Basketball Centre
27 Apr, 1600hrs RJC vs HCI @ Clementi Sports Hall
4 May, 1400hrs RJC vs YJC @ Singapore Basketball Centre

It's been a few barren years for RJC Basketball (boys). Yet this year, the team is shaping up well in training and we look forward to surprise a few opponents.

Nike League Finals: Raffles vs Serangoon Gardens

Serangoon 56 vs RI 49

RI lost the finals in a mostly see-sawing affair. Big leads were rare and the game started with both teams noticeably tense.

Credit to SGSS, they played well and made the most use of their dominant big man. RI was not able to get into our preferred game at all. Apart from the few fast breaks we got at the beginning, they did very well to stop Danny from orchestrating the fast breaks.

RI missed a good number of open layups, about 5. That proved to be the main regret that we'll all walk away with. It was really a game within our reach. Perhaps something we could have almost won comfortably if we got our game going.

Yet this is not something that we should allow, to take away from the closure that we wanted for this season. We had 7 good games after losing in the South Zone. Of all things, I managed to correct some of my own regrets.

At the end of the day, the goal for this tournament was to enjoy ourselves, enjoy one another, and give us a chance to prove to ourselves that we did not waste our time the past year.

That I feel we accmplished, although it certainly would be sweeter if we had won. However, victory is never forever and defeat is never final.

I'm sure we'll live to fight together another day.

Report of Semifinal

In a game played on Wednesday, we defeated Hougang Secondary by a score of 80-54. The game was started with some excellent fast break opportunities converted by our forwards. Much of our emphasis in the game was on the defence, especially against Hougang who relied on one star player, Number 9 on offence.

In the end, the sheer size difference and skill difference made for a comfortable win as we dominated the boards and scored almost all the transition baskets. On defence, we were not quite as good as could have been defending the perimeter, as they managed to get a few wide open looks for three, which they promptly converted. Zhengfeng played well today, scoring 29 points, one shy of his previous game's tally. An Zhen also scored 21 points, mostly on the fast break. Credit goes to Hougang who fought hard despite the scoreline.

We will be playing Serangoon Gardens on Friday, and again, the focus will be on defence. We are going to give it our all.

Nike League Finals: Raffles vs Serangoon Gardens

Raffles Institution B Div team will be playing Serangoon Gardens Secondary School in the Finals of the Nike League.

Date: 13 April 2007 (Friday)
Time: 1615hrs
Venue: Singapore Basketball Centre (601, Aljunied Crescent)

We beat Hougang Sec today in the Semi-Finals. Report will follow soon.

Come see our excellent B Div team in action for the last time!

RI in Final Four

RI beat Chung Cheng Yishun 60-52 on Monday to advance to the semifinals of the Nike Schools League.

The game started out quite close for both teams, with Danny scoring freely and getting the first few baskets. Chung Cheng #7 led the charge back into the game with his sharp shooting, scoring 3 three pointers in the first quarter alone. Nevertheless, we maintained a slim lead into the second quarter, led by good performances by Zheng Feng and Danny, who combined for 51 points in the entire game.

Despite an adequate effort on defence, the score was alot closer than it should have been, with some squandered chances that we had, as well as the treys from #7, who was having a hot shooting day. He ended up with 10 3 pointers in the game. Nevertheless, by the fourth quarter, we were firmly in control and held on to our lead decisively in the last few minutes, milking out the clock. We will be facing Hougang next on Wednesday.

RI passes round of Sixteen

Our game against Kent Ridge Secondary School marked the beginning of the knock out stages for us. Overall, it was a well contested match with the score kept closely matched all the way till the end of the game.

It was definitely a bad start for us as we were down by 12 points after the first 5 minutes of the match. Again, the lack of effort to bring the defensive intensity up led to a bad defensive performance by RI. Also, RI was lackluster on the defensive boards, leading to a few easy put backs by the centres of Kent Ridge during the first quarter. However, RI proved to be more productive in the second quarter, regaining the lead. In the second half, RI was on a roll as Zhengfeng hit 5 3 pointers to pull the score apart. Kent Ridge never got back the lead resulting in a win for RI, with a scoreline of 46-38.

Good sportsmanship was displayed by players from both sides as it was a rather low fouling game.

Raffles Institution 84-32 Riverside Secondary

Raffles Institution 84-32 Riverside Secondary

In the Nike’s League match played on the 2nd of April 2007, we defeated a Riverside Secondary team by a score of 84-32. Despite the large margin of victory however, we got off to a shaky start due to a string of petty fouls which Riverside were able to capitalize on to take an early 4-2 lead. A lack of intensity on both the offensive and defensive ends continued as the first half progressed and this resulted in many open shots for the Riverside team.

In the second half, we stepped up on our level of intensity and started applying more pressure on Riverside on the defensive end resulting in numerous fastbreak baskets and from there, we were able to take a 62-23 lead entering the fourth. In the fourth, the defensive pressure continued and this further inflated our lead to a winning margin of 52 points.

Credit to Riverside for putting up a good fight despite the final result and this match was also useful as we were able to give all 12 players of the team a good run out before the knock-out stages start on Wednesday. Full court press was also executed well and in short a well-played match by both teams.