Raffles Basketball in Shanghai

Packlist for Shanghai Trip

For everyone going on the Shanghai Trip (:

I'll be listing the items that should be packed by headings, but please remember to read whatever's below the packlist items as there'll be details and instructions for you guys, especially the proceedings on Wednesday morning 26th November, the day we leave Singapore.

Clothing
Jerseys ( White & Green Raffles jerseys/ reversible gryphons jersey) X2
Training attire (PE Shirt + Basketball shorts) X2
Shoes (Basketball and leisurely)
Slippers/Sandals X1
Leisurely Clothes (enough for 5 days, to be worn when we go sightseeing)
*NOTE: it is advised for each of us to be wearing at least 2 sets of clothing beneath a windbreaker/jacket whenever we're out of the hotel, so take note of this when packing no. of sets of clothes, temperature 6-18 Degrees
RI Basketball Jacket (will be given out on wednesday morning)
Sweater/Coat/Jacket/Windbreaker X2
Pyjamas (if necessary)
Undergarments (based on personal preference)
Socks (based on personal preference)

Toiletries
Shampoo
Soap
Facial Cleanser
Toothbrush
Toothpaste
Shaver & Shaving cream (if necessary)
Deodorant
Bathing towel
Small towels (for after games)
Contact lenses & solution
Powder
Nail Cutter

Medicinal
Personal medication
Asthma Inhaler
Deep Heat
Portable Ice Pack
Panadol
Vitamin ABCDE (IMPORTANT)
Thermometer (optional)
Alchoholic Swipes
Tissue (Dry and Wet, for public toilets)
Lip Balm

Miscellaneous
Singapore $300 converted into RMB for lodging and food fee
Extra RMB for shopping / our own meals etc. (advised: max 100 sing dollars)
PSP
Gameboy
Nintendo DS
MP3s
Ipod Shuffle Classic Nano Touch
CAMERA (IMPORTANT, do bring if you have one)
Video Cam (if you have, and sufficient memory)
DVDs (original and non-pirated please)
Chargers (handphone/camera/torchlight etc.)

I really encourage you guys to bring a digital camera if you have your own, or borrow one from your parents, as this trip to Shanghai wasn't really easy to come by, and you'll be able to capture moments you share with a very special group of people in someplace so far from home. And please do make sure you bring along your chargers and sufficient memory. 5 days to hone your camwhoring and phototaking skillz.

Additional Information
As mentioned above, the temperature in Shanghai now is from 6-15 deg. celcius, and when the wind blows it's really going to be cold, so do bring along extra pieces of clothing, minimum of 2 sets beneath a coat/jacket and lip balm for cracked lips. We'll be playing 3 games in the 5 days we'll be there, and we'll be staying at a 3-star hotel.

Plan for Wednesday morning, 26th November
Our flight will be at 10.10am, so everyone will be meeting at 8AM, TERMINAL 3. Our flight details are: China Eastern, MU546. On wednesday morning, there will be a big screen in the middle of the departure hall and you can check which counter we should be at from the screen. Once again, it's 8AM, TERMINAL 3 at our respective counter/row.

Please have your PASSPORTS WITH YOU, and no liquid items more than 500ml if i'm not wrong in your handcarry bags, so please keep things like your deodorant and contact lense solution in your check-in bags instead.

That's about all for now, will update the packing list or instructions if anything new pops up. Apart from that, please do start packing as soon as possible, don't leave your packing till tuesday night when you realise many things cannot be found. Get your currency changed to RMB soon too, and PLEASE REMEMBER TO PASS $15 to your respective captains for the insurance, and for the sec 2s and 3s, pass Jordaan and I $15 for the raffles basketball jacket.

Thanks, and do keep checking back for updates.
Ryan

Training Schedule (10-15 Nov)

At the moment, there is some uncertainty with the ISIBL semi-final schedule. As such, we'll only fix the trainings as follows:

Sec 1s + P6s

17 Nov Monday 0800hrs Training @RI (Coach YC)

19 Nov Wednesday 0730hrs Training @RI

B Div

20 Nov Thursday 0800hrs Training @RI

21 Nov Friday 0730hrs Training @RI

• To add to this, there is likely to be to be ISIBL matches for both U16 & Senior Teams on 18 Nov
  
• We may cut 1 session of training if the Finals/Placings match falls on this Saturday
  

Obama Plays Basketball!

ISIBL U-16 RI 60-38 CIS

We played the Canadian International School on the 6th of November at 4.30pm. We played the match without the secondary 3s, who were at OIP training. We made a couple of changes in the team, and we came into the game with a different mentality altogether. We started the match well, getting fast break opportunities as well as key offensive rebounds to finish the 1st quarter with a 12-6 lead. We broke down in the 2nd quarter, letting the other team get on a run, ending the 1st half with a 18-17 lead. We were unable to stop their star players, and we were unable to break their half court trap, leading in too many turnovers which resulted in easy baskets. In the 3rd quarter, we fought back and pulled away with impressive 3 pointers and 3 point plays by Brendan and Alex. We gathered momentum and finished the 3rd quarter with a 33-25 lead and the match 60-38. 

MVP candidates: 

CIS: Edwin Huo 

RI: Brendan Sim, Ding Jian Han 

ISIBL U-16 RI 34-32 GESS

The match was played on the 4th November, at around 4pm. The team started off slowly, with only Alex and Brendan scoring to hand the team a 7-6 lead at the end of the first quarter. However, everything went wrong in the 2nd quarter, which was interrupted by a short rain. We could only muster 3 points in the 2nd quarter, off a Brendan 3 pointer. We ended the 1st half down 15-10. Thankfully, we pulled it together in the 3rd quarter, with Alex hitting 2 3 pointers to allow us to tie the match 21-21. In the last quarter, we were unable to stop their star player:Chris Bader, who scored 6 straight points. We responded with 3s from Alex and Joel, before we slowly pulled away, finishing with a 3 pointer by Joel. We kept possession for the last minute, and ending the match with a slim 2 point lead. 

The MVP candidates are: 

GESS: Chris Bader

RI: Brendan Sim, Alexander Loh

Training Schedule (Week of 10 Nov)

RI-WSHS

7/11/08
ISIBL U-20
Final Score: RI 78-54 AIS

RI played their last match before some of the guys left for OIP at Waseda Shibuya High School. The game started off well, with good defense and quick transition baskets. But into the 2nd quarter, we started to lax and found ourselves on the receiving end of a run. Our pressbreaker didn't work initially and Coach called a timeout for us to regain our composure. Late in the game, we started pressing and managed to come up with many steals. Many layups and underbaskets were missed in the game, but all in all, those going overseas leave with a sweet taste of victory--78-54.

RI-CIS

6/11/08
ISIBL U-20
Final Score: RI 38-32 CIS

RI played against the Canadian International School whose team comprised mainly of Koreans! Poor defence in the first quarter led to us being slightly behind but we fought back with great intensity in the second and third quarters with a man to man defense. We eventually won the game 38-32!

RI-CTS

31/10/08
ISIBL U-20
Final Score: RI 44-29 CTS

RI fought hard and manage to keep the oppositions star post player at bay, beating Clementi Town School 44 to 29!

This Week's Schedule

RI-Australian International School

29/10/08
ISIBL U-20
Final Score: RI 39-24 AIS
1st Quarter: 14-8
2nd Quarter: 4-6
3rd Quarter: 13-5
4th Quarter: 8-10

We played this game without Jordaan and Justin, who were both injured. Yet, we fought our hearts out and were not intimidated by the size of the opposition, hounding the boards and putting our game plan into play.

We eventually won 39-24!

Training Schedule (Week of 27 Oct)

Dream Team Fight Win

RI-Tanglin Trust School

22/10/08
ISIBL U-20
Final Score: RI 39-47 TTS
1st Quarter: 2-17
2nd Quarter: 15-6
3rd Quarter: 12-9
4th Quarter: 10-15

B Div'09 played their first match away against Tanglin Trust School after a long break. This is a recap of the game:

The first quarter started off evenly matched, with the end-to-end play in the first few minutes resulting in zero baskets. Gradually the physical dominance of the older opposition started to show, and due to poor boxing out, TTS pounded the boards and dominated both offensively and defensively, romping to a 17-2 lead. Fired up, we responded in the second quarter playing good defence and spreading our offense to find our main offensive threats, and caught up to 17-23 at the half. In the third, we extended our streak and even managed to lead by 2, but lost it once again due to poor boxing out. We could not catch up in the last quarter and eventually lost by 8 points.

Things to take note:
-Starting off sluggishly-we always fall behind before getting our heads into the game, and this match was no exception
-Boxing out

Despite the loss, this match has undoubtedly rallied the team together and made us hopeful.

USA's Olympic-winning was termed the "REDEEM TEAM" in the light of their "dream team" failing to capture the gold 4 years back.

We messed up our C'Div Season and it's time to rise up and prove ourselves and bring glory to the school. This is a new season, and it's time to learn from our past mistakes and put them into action.

REDREAM.
TEAM.
FIGHT.
WIN.

Post-Exams Training Plan

This will be the Post-Exam Training Plan. We need to get back to match fitness as quickly as possible because of ISIBL schedule & also to catch up with other schools who have already started training 2 weeks back.

The training sessions will increase in intensity gradually, but all are necessary.

Respective captains and ICs: Ryan Tan (Senior), Ben Ng (U16) & Alex (Sec1s) please get word out.

To all the RI Basketballers,

ALL THE BEST FOR YOUR END-OF-YEAR PAPERS!
leave the classroom after every paper without any regrets,
if you've put in the effort your hard work will surely show.
'cause doing well isn't everything,
Wanting To is.

SEE YOU ALL ON COURT AGAIN AFTER THE 22ND!

And to Coach,
I'm guessing many of us (including me) haven't seen you around or heard from you for quite awhile, with this large break from training and everything. Hope you're doing fine, having a good break from the orange ball and the slanted courts mentally, physically and emotionally (:

On behalf of RI Basketball,
TAKE CARE & ENJOY THIS FINAL WEEK BEFORE WE SQUEEZE OURSELVES INTO YOUR BUSY SCHEDULE ONCE AGAIN :D

Ryan

(From Coach)

Hi Ryan, wonderful to hear from you :) Yes I do miss trainings, but this is a good and necessary time to recharge and rest. We all need to renew ourselves time to time.

I'm coming back stronger and better!

To all of the other guys, looking forward to a brand new season come Tuesday. We'll have lots of new dreams, challenges and teambuilding! Finish the race for this exam and then I'll see you Tuesday!

National Basketball League

Gryphons will be sending to team for this year's National Basketball League qualifying round 2008.

Team

Ong Swee Teck (Manager)

Poh Yeang Cherng (Player/Coach)

Post

1. Low Jia Ren (Captain)
2. Simon Quek
3. Warren Mah
4. Jermaine Loy

Forwards

1. Du Zi Chao
2. Wang Jia Cheng
3. Simon Ong
4. John Koh
5. Dennis Chee Kwang How

Guards

1. Gabriel Pang
2. Danny Chua
3. Chey Zheng Feng
4. Wang Ding Yuan
5. Tan Siak San

Fixtures

20-Sep-08 Sat 7.00pm E Jwoods Sports World vs Gryphons @KMRT
21-Sep-08 Sun 7.00pm E Gryphons vs Kangaroos @KMRT
24-Sep-08 Wed 8.30pm E UWA vs Gryphons @KMRT
26-Sep-08 Fri 8.30pm E Gryphons vs Pirates Basketball Club @KMRT
28-Sep-08 Sun 5.30pm E Chong Ghee vs Gryphons @SBC1

• KMRT - Kembangan MRT
• SBC - Singapore Basketball Centre
  

Report

We ended the NBL campaign 1-4. Despite the elimination, this is a very positive tournament on a few fronts:

1. We managed to get a team together consisting of young and old (from 16 to 47 years old)
   
2. The Blues 97 joined us for the 1st time
   
3. Effort did not end with NBL (like in the past) but rather continued with regular sparring sessions with RJC boys on Thursday evenings. 
   

This is the start of good things and not the end of an effort.

We lost because:

1. We could not get enough guys for the matches - had to go with 6 guys for 1 match, and JR could only play 2 games. Add to that the financial crisis and work commitments took out a few more guys.
   
2. Not enough understanding forged wiht the few training sessions we had.
   

U-14 Nationals RI 59-54 Jurong Secondary

It is said that the 3rd 4th placing match is one of the hardest match for players to find motivation for, but still we found motivation yet for this match. We came to the match slightly relaxed, we told ourselves to stick to our plans, to stick to the things we always do, to play our game. 

And we did. 

Jordaan started the game off with a bang, hitting the first 3 points of the game. He had an excellent game all around, not forcing rushed shots and the like, eventually finishing with 3 3-pointers. For the 1st quarter, we played well, getting fast-breaks, as well as grabbing rebounds on both ends of the court. In the 2nd quarter, Jurong fought back, and we slightly lost focus to allow them to claw back into the game. 

In the last 2 quarters though, we managed to get a lead which we held on to till the end. We fought as a team, we hung on as a team, and we won as a team. 

Dream.Team.Fight.Win. 

Nationals THIRD

Coach

Playing the 3rd/4th game is hardest because it often is an anticlimax to the semi-finals and invites 2 disappointed teams to play for the consolation prize. You guys did well - it was obvious your motivation and drive was higher.

We could have won by more if not for the many turnovers in our backcourt. In a sense the end result was never in question. Kudos to Jurong for overachieving yet again. With limited weapons, JSS has done so well.

We ended up the exact position which we anticipated before start of season - on paper, you are the 3rd team. AHS and USS are clearly superior. Yet I think you can be very proud of yourself because we aimed (and worked) to overturn that order right from day 1. Nevermind the fact that we collapsed big time against AHS and faced an outstanding USS semi-final performance. It was not because of lack of effort. We just did not have the experience to compose ourselves mentally.

So it has been a good season. You did not let yourself down. You did not underachieve. You gave it all.

Well done!

U-14 Nationals RI 47-76 Unity Secondary School

The pressure of playing in the national semi-finals was going to get to us, we knew that right from the start, and that we would probably make some mistakes throughout the match, but we didn't know that it would get to us so badly. We made silly mistakes and played outside our game, forcing rushed shots, and missing them. 

At the start of the match, we set it off at a blistering pace, rushing to a 16-10 lead. In that run, we played good defense, getting some steals and baskets on the other end. However, we lacked the discipline to continue that pace, allowing unity to get onto a 8-0 run, and allowing them to grab an 18-16 lead at the end of the first quarter. 

Then it got all downhill from there. We made way too many mistakes from them, with Jordaan getting his 4th foul early. Thankfully, Alex kept us in the game with a 3 as well as 2 jumpers. However, Unity was to overpower us through 4 quarters and winning us with a 29 point margin. 

However, we never gave up throughout the entire match, playing our best even though we were down by such a huge margin. The 3rd-4th match will be on the following monday, we'll definitely have to come back stronger and beat the other team for the bronze medal. 

Dream.Team.Fight.Win. 

ONE PERFECT MATCH

Coach

Unity played an excellent game and outclassed RI. We lost in score but we matched them in spirit and fight.

I feel proud that USS did not overwhelm us on the boards despite having such a height advantage. Finally we are learning the most valuable lesson of boxing out.

Dream.Team.Fight.Win.

For as long as we've been in Raffles basketball, we've been taught the mentality of Dream-team-fight-win. 

Dream. We have dreamt for a year now, its high time our dream became reality

Team. We've been a team for a year now, nobody breaks us besides ourselves

Fight. We've been fighting for a year now, we'll still be fighting

Win. Its time to win now. 

U-14 Nationals RI 37-58 Anglican High School

Today we lost not to them, but to ourselves. We came into the match wanting to talk, wanting to fight, wanting to play as a team, and yet we never managed to get anything going. We didn't talk on offense, failing to set screens for one another. Because of the fact that we lacked the want for the ball, Justin was often trapped and had to throw passes that were not up to par. In the end, we gave away many unnecessary turnovers, and handed them fast-break opportunities. 

We fought, but never as a team. We did not manage to hustle back on defense, thus when the opposition missed their fast-break lay-ups, they were able to get rebounds and put-backs. We never got to playing team defense, not helping each other, not staying focus, our trap never really got going and working. 

We didn't box out. It seems ironic that we've worked so hard on boxing out and yet we haven't been able to do it when it matters most. We allowed the centers of Anglican High to pluck rebounds over our heads, leading to easy put-backs and the like. 

Now that we've reflected on this match, we hope to bounce back even stronger than before when we play Unity in the semi-finals. If there was a time for us to step up, the time is now. 

Dream.Team.Fight.Win. 

We believe

U-14 Nationals RI 60-49 Yuying Secondary

This was to be a repeat of the Southzone finals, but we knew that we had to be careful against this team, as they were facing elimination and that they would go all out against us. We got off to slow start today. Seeing the other team playing a 2-3 zone, we took many outside shots, but not many of them were going for us, and so the low scoring. We left the 1st quarter with a 9-6 lead. 

In the 2nd quarter, we came back slightly stronger than before. We played a half court man, but we didn't communicate well within this stretch, not talking to each other about screens, sometimes losing our man, thus allowing for easy baskets. On the offensive end, we managed to get a few breakaway lay-ups, most of the time trading baskets with the opponent, ending the 2nd quarter with a 27-20 lead. 

The game progressed as plan, but we nearly threw the game away when we pushed one of our self-destruct buttons. We were outscored 20-16 in the last quarter but managed to win in 60-49. For the next 3 matches, our skills will not matter as much as our team spirit, and it is high time that we stepped out onto the court as a team, as a unit and fight together as one. 

Dream.Team.Fight.Win. 

The final stretch 

U-14 Nationals RI 58-37 Woodlands Ring Secondary

We were made to work hard for this match. Before the match, we talked about what we wanted to achieve in this match and 4/12 of us said that we wanted to talk, both on defense and offense. And yet it never happened. We were near silent the entire match, when we were down, we weren't able to pull it back together. What we depended on was our superior skills and physical abilities. What we really want: beating them using our team spirit. And part of that is to talk. 

We started strongly today, with many converted fast-break lay-ups in the first quarter. The score was also helped by Lawrence, who grabbed many offensive and defensive boards, including quite a few put-backs. But everything fell apart in the 2nd quarter. We fell asleep going into that quarter, missing easy lay-ups, playing sloppy defense, and allowing the other team to claw back into the game with a few 3-pointers. This part would have been when our talking could have kicked in, pulling the team out of its slump, and also encouraging the guys who had previously missed lay-ups. 

Thankfully, we woke up just in time to pull away in the 3rd and 4th quarter, outscoring them by a combined 17 points in the 2nd half, to come away with the win. We have to improve quickly, especially in our talking, if we are to have any chance of beating Anglican and Unity, also, our players would have to fight aggressively on the court, doing whatever it takes to win. 

Dream.Team.Fight.Win. 

The time is now. 

U-14 Nationals RI 66-33 Presbyterian High

Complacency would have killed us. We knew it from the start, but still we let the bug bite us. We see Pres High is almost the same situation that we were in last year, and we knew for sure that this time, they would give it all out. They had nothing to lose, but us, everything. We couldn't allow ourselves to slip up in this match and throw again our status as group leaders, but we started slowly.

Right from the start, Jordaan went off at a blistering pace, scoring 9 of our first 10 points. But from then, our pace seemed to slow down, allowing the opposition to claw their way back. We eventually came away with a 3 point advantage:12-9. In the 2nd quarter, however, things started going downhill. We seemed to lose the spirit that we had depended so much upon, not doing what we had to do on defense, rushing shots on offense, making silly mis-passes and turnovers. Soon, everyone was on the verge of a breakdown, and we had no answer for Pres high's impressive run and spirit, fortunately ending the quarter 30-29. 

The bad things continued into the 3rd quarter, where tempers seemed to be on the verge of breaking down. We played as badly as we did in the 2nd quarter, ending the quarter with a 3 point lead. In the 4th quarter, everything came back to us. The spirit was back, as all 5 guys on the court fought together. We pressed like we never pressed before, making steals and intercepting balls. We got easy lay-ups, hit 3-pointers. It was a complete turn from the 2nd and 3rd quarter, this time we did everything right. In that quarter only, we scored 36 points and the other team: 4. 

Despite a solid result that ensured our entry into the next round, we are left to reflect on a match that we played extremely badly. Yes, we still ended with a 'blow-out' like scoreline, but if we step onto the court against Anglican in our 2nd round and we play with this kind of a standard, we cannot depend on another 36 point run in the 4th quarter to win it for us. Like Coach said before, our victory depends on our spirit, our spirit that compels us into fighting for everything that we believe. Today we lost sight of that spirit, but when it came back to us, we came up tops. 

Dream.Team.Fight.Win. 

We can't lose that spirit 

U-14 Nationals RI 68-44 Dunman High

Before the game, we took a minute to remember how we lost to Dunman High by 2 points in the ISIBL semi-final. We remembered how badly that we had played then, how everything went wrong for the team, how we pressed every single self-destruct button that there ever was for the team. And we knew it wasn't going to happen again. We knew what they were capable of, and we knew that we had to do whatever was within our means to stop them.

The match started well for us, ending 10-2 in the 1st quarter. Throughout that quarter, the Dunman squad was unable to find a single open shot, but we fouled foolishly and unnecessarily, giving up that 2 points. The low scores came as Jordaan was man-marked by the Dunman #10. The team did not react fast enough, not coming out to screen for Jordaan. However, Jordaan did the best he could, cutting at any opportunity and still scoring some crucial baskets for the team.

In the 2nd quarter, it was our turn to put on the press. We interchanged between the 5 and 3. However, right off the start, there were too many communications error in our pressing, allowing for some easy baskets for the other team. We soon got ourselves into a rough patch, where our offense was not going at all. We made silly turnovers and found ourselves in deep trouble as the opponents fought back to cut our lead to 4 points at the end of the 2nd quarter.

Things weren't looking good for us when the other team scored straight points to tie the match at 18-18. Under pressure, the team dug deep and gave it our all, not giving up at all. We slowly pulled away in the match, playing aggressively in our press, fighting for every ball. We managed to get many fast-break opportunities and easy lay-ups. However, the match was marred by the fact that we fouled recklessly and foolishly, with Justin on 4, Jordaan on 4, Lawrence on 3 and Bryan on 3. Which meant that our starting 5 accumulated an astonishing 14 fouls, with only Brendan without fouls.

On a side note, Bryan got his first start of the tournament and he played well, fighting for rebounds and playing aggressively. Another good performance to note was that of Brendan, who scored a game-high 24 points, 2 points more than Jordaan. Our next match will be against Presbyterian High on Thurs at 2pm at BAS/SBC.

Dream.Team.Fight,Win.

One game closer

Coach

The best thing we got right: A bulldog spirit.

This is just game #2. We've got to keep focused. A lot of ground to make up on the Big-2. When we meet them 1 few games from now, we can promise that we'll be a very different team from today. :)

You've dreamt, you've gelled as a team, some of you are fighting. Let's get everyone on board, and I know winning will come.

South Zone C Div Finals 2008 - through Joel's Lenses

Thank you Joel!

U-14 Nationals RI 74-26 Bukit Panjang Government High

It wasn't as easy as it looked. It was definitely to be a hard match, we knew right from the start that Nationals definitely wasn't going to be easy. Memories from our horrific lost last year kept appearing in our minds, and we wanted to ensure that such problems would not return to haunt us again. In order to keep our minds 100% focused on the match, we even asked for a postponement of the class tests on that day.

Yet for some reason, almost half of us came to the match afraid. And it showed. The match was played out in a tense manner, with a sincere lack of communication between players. Even for the senior players, we made that very same mistake, which caused both our offense and defense to break. For our full-court pressing, the communication was almost non-existent, allowing the Bukit Panjang point guard to break the press entirely by himself.

On the offensive end though, we never actually ran a good 1-4 play. There were just too many little mistakes that were going on, whereby there was always someone who did something wrong, eventually rendering the entire play useless. Definitely, we would have to work upon this in order to make sure that we improve ourselves for the remaining of our Nationals, lifting our level and never making the same mistakes again.

We'll be needing communication to pull us through no matter what is to happen in this season.

Dream.Team.Fight.Win.

Nationals.

Coach

This is the Nationals. On the court there is only 1 acceptable mode, and it's "War-mode". To all the players, you cannot step ont othe court if you are not in the right frame of mind.

Today's game was not hard at all. We only needed to open our mouths and decide to talk. But only some did. So we struggled the entire game. The reason we stretched it to a 48 point margin was simple, we just used superior physical ability to overwhelm them.

On the bright side, Jordaan shot very well, and it was good to see Lawrence play 20 min in his all-out style. Bryan did well too and showed much better fitness.

U-14 RI 59-40 Yuying Secondary School

Southzone finals. It was hard to believe but after so much sweat, blood and tears, we were finally at our first checkpoint. As we made our way to Delta Sports Complex, we knew that this was going to be a terribly physical and hard match, after watching them play quite a few times. Through mental-prepping, we managed to calm our nerves down, especially as we had gone through the defensive plays the day before, so we knew what we had to do to prevent a loss in the finals. For most of the sec 2s, we could still remember the way we agonizing lost to catholic high the previous year, so we went into the match fully prepared and ready. We wanted to make sure that we win the southzone title for the first time since Gabriel's batch.

Right off the tip, we were ready to go, with justin laying off an alley pass to jordaan for an easy lay-up. We collapsed to a 1-1-3 defense, with the 2 players of the last line pushing up. Maybe it was due to a lack of experience, or a lack of focus, or just nerves, but we allowed for way too many back-door cuts and easy baskets. However, we soon regained our nerves and cut off such silly mistakes, playing much better defense. We did well to jam the cuts, not allowing the other team to take open shots. Granted, there were some shots that they managed to hit, but those were contested shots, not wide-open ones.

However, most of the problems came from rebounding, both defensively and offensively. On defense, we did not box out well enough, allowing the other team to get easy offensive rebounds and put-backs. On the offensive end, the weak side was not cutting in for the rebounds, giving the yuying team too easy defensive rebounds. Also, when we reverted to a press later in the game, we did not manage to get our press going well, with them breaking through quite a few times.

A good point to take was that all the players managed to play in the final, allowing them to feel the pressure and learn to handle it. This experience will definitely do the team good later in the season, where we would have high-pressure matches like this, and we definitely must not crack under the pressure. Although we did not have a great game, we managed to edge out a win despite all that was at stake.

Definitely, this has been a satisfying victory, but we definitely cannot rest on our laurels. We must continue fighting and improving, in order to win the nationls and make history.

On a side note, if anyone has seen a stray medal at delta sports hall, please inform the team as one of our team-members has lost his medal. Thank you.

Dream.Team.Fight.Win.

South Zone Champions

(From Coach)

We did 2 (or rather 1.5) of the 3 essential things and came out with a 18-point margin. Not the prettiest game in terms of execution nor was it one of our better games. But in finals, what matters most is the end result. From that perspective, we got the title, learned from our mistakes, and will enter into the next high-stakes match much more prepared.

Take a good break and come back Friday for PART II.

U-14 RI 61-33 Mayflower

The match wasn't as easy as the scoreline suggests. Right from the start of the match, we knew that we had to be weary of this squad, after the close fight between us earlier in the season. At the start of the match, we were down 6-2 early on, with the other team getting easy fastbreak baskets. However, we did not get nervous or tense (like the previous matches). We fought back, and slowly built up a lead, ending the first quarter 15-10. We slowly outlasted them throughout the four quarters, finishing the match with a strong victory. 

SouthZone Finals. Here we come. 

Coach: You guys did well. We did not allow MFSS much space throughout the game. MFSS' fight and resilience was admirable but you did well to be prepared for it. Eventually you simply fought them quarter by quarter.

Batch Jersey for RI '09

Nicest Batch Jersey Award! :)

Thank you guys!

U-14 RI 77-23 Serangoon Garden Secondary

At the back of a bad performance against Cat High, we bounced back today, getting the win. Before the match, we were briefed by coach on how to defend against no.9, who proved to be their star player. We wanted to make sure that we did not make the same mistakes as the previous game, especially in our communication and defense. 

Today, we showed up ready to play. Right from the start, we talked on defense, telling our team-mates whenever no.9 did a cut. This worked pretty well for us in the first half, where no.9 was limited to only 2 points. However, when we switched to a zone, things did not go according to plan. We did not pick no.9 up fast enough, without much help side defense. Once or twice, we were left with little or no defense on him, allowing him to drive easily, allowing him to score all his team's points in the 3rd quarter (10). 

On offense however, we recognized that they were playing a 2-3 zone, this taking quite a few outside shots, which went pretty well for the our team. All in all, this was a pretty good game for our team. 

Definitely, the next 2 games will be difficult, but we will stay focused and give it our very best.

Dream.Team.Fight.Win. 

We're nearing the checkpoint

To Cdiv'08

Hey Cdiv,

Good effort today, even though it was a pretty lacklustre performance on the whole from you guys, you managed to seal the win, and it was very heartening watching you guys own the court today against our good friends from the other side of Bishan. Especially when Joel hit his net-swishing three-pointer :D

Despite all the "favourite tags", and all the off-court talk that your team will definitely win SZ, favourites for the South Zone title etc, DO NOT let it get into your heads, because complacency can destroy any team (as many of the sec 2s will remember) and nothing is certain. I really hope you guys don't take the next two games for granted and assume it is a free ride to the final.

Still, we were all very proud of you today, undoubtedly it was very very shiok watching you guys beat Cathigh, something i've only experienced once. Keep up the good work, hopefully you'll remember what I told you guys today after the game, and focus on the two games left before the final, the game where you will fight for your lives for your first taste of gold this season.

U-14 Ri 73-42 Catholic High

This was going to be one of the biggest games of our south zone campaign, and we knew it. However, we didn't turn up as prepared as we were in our previous match. Everything started wrongly, right from the warm-ups, where we were too quiet and didn't communicate with each other. The problem was immediately pointed out, but yet it was still carried into the game. We were never able to get our talking going and because of that we made silly mistakes that we would otherwise never make. For example, during our defense, we often allowed too nervous, something that could definitely be solved through talking and communication. On offense, we did not execute our plays, relying much on our fast-breaking for points. 

Overall, we definitely have to improve on the team's communication, as it is only through communication that we can ever and will ever get out of bad situations. Take today's game for example, we won because our individual players were extremely skillful, and that the other team were shorthanded. The shots we took were definitely not good shots, and hitting it were only a matter of skill. 

Our defense today was extremely bad. Our nerves certainly was a big factor. Also, we were jumping all over the place; although we were already told that jumping on defense was akin to giving up. The ball was constantly thrown over the heads of the last man, something that should definitely not happen. 

Dream.Team.Fight.Win. 

Let's keep improving 

U-14 RI 63-27 Guangyang Secondary School

We came into the match prepared and focused, knowing that the other team was quite a strong one. Albeit all the postponements and problems before the match, we still managed to stay focused, knowing that focus was the difference between winning and losing. We knew that we needed to keep a strong defensive mentality, and that was exactly what we did. The team played exceptionally well on defense, with everyone playing good individual defense, stopping their key players well. On offense, we took too many rushed shots at the start, but as we slowly settled into the game, we ran our offense much better than before, managing to get open shots and back-door cuts. 

On a side note, our point guard: Justin had a great performance, playing exceptionally well on both ends of the court. With his strong individual defense, he managed to limit their opposing point guard from executing the plays. He limited his own turnovers and contributed 15 points. 

CatHigh, here we come. 

U-14 RI 86-29 Bukit Merah

This was to be the first match of our 2nd round, and we came prepared for a much tougher match than those of the 1st round. We raced to a strong start in the first quarter, getting steals and finishing our fastbreaks to get a 24-2 lead after the first quarter. We fought hard throughout the match, keeping up with our intensity to finish off the game with a win. We leaked quite a few points in this match as we let them have quite a few put-backs, we sent them to the line far too many times, committing unnecessary fouls. Also, we did not defend number 6 well enough, allowing him to score 18 of their team points. 

On a side note, Greg put up a strong performance, drawing quite a few fouls and attacking the basket much better than before. We'll be having our next 3 matches in the following week. It'll be quite a tight schedule, but we'll be ready. 

Dream.Team.Fight.Win. 

No time to relax. 

  

  

South Zone C Div Championships: 2nd Round

The draw for the groups are out:

Group X: RI, Serangoon Gardens, Cat High, Bukit Merah, Guangyang
Group Y: Mayflower, Yuying, Kent Ridge, Kuo Chuan Presbyterian, Gan Eng Seng

Matches @ CCAB
10 Jul (Thursday) 1530hrs - Bukit Merah vs RI
14 Jul (Monday) 1300hrs - RI vs Guangyang
16 Jul (Wednesday) 1415hrs - Cat High vs RI
18 Jul (Friday) 1300hrs - Serangoon Gardens vs RI

U-14 RI 100-17 Peicai Secondary School

Before today's match, we worked to keep our focus on the match, after the lecture that we had by our teacher-in-charge, we knew that we mustn't fool around at any point before the match. This worked out for us as we had a strong start, outscoring the other team 29-2 in the 1st quarter. We moved to a 2-2-1 trap, and it worked quite well for our team. However, we still have a couple of tactical errors that we'll have to work on in order to improve on our pressing. In the 2nd half, we moved to a 1-1-3 defense, where we were expected to get all the rebounds, but due to miscommunication by the bottom 3 players, we leaked a couple of offensive boards leading to easy put-backs. However, in that period, we managed to spark many fast-breaks, with brendan sim contributing many of his points in this fashion. Overall, the team had a confident game, and it showed that we were confident with the ball, and we also cut down on silly turnovers. The 2nd round will start next Tues and next Thurs. 

Dream.Team.Fight.Win. 

Round 2 

Gryphons 40 - 73 Home United Dragon

In our final game in the final round, we succumbed to a loss by quite a big margin to Home United. Our lack of fitness clearly showed, especially after a gruelling first week of school, with a few of us tiring out merely after the first quarter. Their lead got increasingly bigger and we did lack the fire to stay in the game mentally, giving in to fatigue.

However, we have learnt a lot from this tournament, experience and exposure which will be vital for the sec4s in their adiv adventures and for the sec3s in their bdiv campaign next year.

U-14 RI 52-42 Mayflower Secondary School

It was a wake-up call for the team. We knew right from the start that this team was strong and that they'll come out and give us their all, but we just didn't respond the way that we should. We lost focus early in the game, committing too many silly turnovers. Also, we didn't contest many of the 3 pointers in the first quarter, allowing them to sink a couple. Throughout the entire match, our trapping didn't work well, which could be due to laziness and also a lack of communication. We failed to talk to our team-mates about who we were guarding, in the end allowing many backdoors and breakaway lay-ups. We also missed too many lay-ups and underbaskets.

Today, we learnt that we had to keep focused the entire match, because the opponents will never just give up, they'll fight all the way, and as raffles basketball, we have to give it all we got. Also, we have to learn how to react when the calls don't go our way. In the match, we had many calls of traveling, and many fouls that weren't called, but still, we have to bear in mind that we have to react to the referees and as long as we stick together and play as a team, even the calls cannot deny us the win.

Dream.Team.Fight.Win.

Lesson learnt

Link to Red Sports Report for RI vs Mayflower

Coach: Count ourselves fortunate. This is the second time we pressed the self-destruct button without major consequences. The T-Net finals vs Unity and SZ vs MF. Never ever press these buttons again.

Gryphons 47 - 73 Tong Whye Temple

Our second last game of the Milo Youth Cup tournament, the scoreline does suggest quite a bad defeat, with us losing by a margin of 26 points, but the team certainly did enjoy ourselves and although we did not have the fitness were not able to go through all 4 quarters at a superior physical level unlike the opposition, we did stay united as a team for every second of the game, something which has been lacking for quite a long period of time.

We played this game without coach by the sidelines, however we surprised ourselves by managing to keep the scoreline close, only trailing by 7 going into the last quarter. However, the team's decision to press in the final quarter was not fully effective, which allowed Tong Whye to increase their lead. For the first time this tournament, all 11 of us managed to get some time on court, and despite the loss, this game will be one we won't forget easily.

Our last game as a team (sec3s and 4s) will be on Sunday, 10am against Home United Dragons @ SBC. This will probably be the last game the sec4s play in ri colours, so we'll be looking to make it a memorable one for the team, for ourselves.

U-14 RI 81-8 Bendemeer Secondary School

The 2nd match of our campaign and we knew we had to retain the intensity of which we played our previous match. We started out strong, making key steals, but also missing quite a few underbaskets. We started out pressing the other team, and they simply could not keep up with our pressure, making several turnovers. However, when we went to our zone press (3-22), it wasn't as successful as we thought that it would be. When we further collapsed into a 2-11 and then a 1-1-3, we allowed them to shoot a couple of 3 pointers, and our boxing out wasn't as aggressive as it could be. 

A good point to note was the great performance of Greg, who scored a game high 16 points, also managing to find the shooter and freeing him from the low post (something we worked after the previous match). Hopefully, we can carry the momentum into our Friday's match against Mayflower Secondary. 

Dream.Team.Fight.Win. 

Let's push it. 

Gryphons 65 - 73 Tong Whye Sports Association

This was our second game in two days, however the team's energy level improved greatly from yesterday's lethargic performance. Once again we failed to effectively stop Tong Whye's key player #10 for the entire first quarter, but after some adjustments made we did a much better job on him for the subsequent three quarters. Despite trailing by as much as 12 points early, we fought back and cut the gap to 3 by the end of the third quarter. The game went right down to the death as we were still trailing by 3 points with a bit less than 4 minutes to go. However, poor rebounding in the final few minutes allowed the tongwhy centre's to score 4 easy points and bring the game out of reach with not much time left remaining in this heated encounter.

Despite the loss, there was a lot to learn from this game, and we managed to absorb the most amount of exposure we could today. We have two games left in this final round, and likewise we'll be aiming to make the most of the last two games we'll probably be playing as a team for the next two years at least. Good job today everyone

On the other hand, the seniors would like to wish our juniors, whose season kicked off brightly today with the demolition of henderson (refer to report below), all the best in their C division campaign (:

To the sec1s: Your journey in basketball officially begins here competitively. Work well with your seniors and under their leadership, I'm sure you'll learn not only a lot from them, but also a lot about yourselves. Fear nobody and don't ever give up fighting!

To the sec2s: This will be your last chance playing in C division before bdiv next year where it's going to be much tougher physically and mentally. Finish off every second on court with no regrets, take it one game at a time, and do us, coach, the teachers and especially yourselves proud. You guys are really talented so make the best use of your abilities and lead your team to victory. We'll be waiting to cheer our lunges out for you at your first check point, SZ Finals.

Dream Team Fight Win

U-14 RI 72 - 7 Henderson Secondary School

So there, the start to our 'C' div season 2008! The match started at 1pm at CCAB, although we didn't have much warm-up time, most of us were geared up to play our best at the start of the tournament. We started out shakily, being very tense on both ends on the court. Our defense pulled through though, not allowing them to score for the entire 1st quarter, ending it 18-0. In the ensuing quarters, we kept up the pressure and defensive intensity, doing whatever we could to stop them from scoring. However, one of the major problems of today was that although they pressed us the entire game, we did not run our screens well, needing coach to remind us about the pressing and even the plays, which is something that we have to improve by the next match, which is on Wednesday. This game definitely boosted our team morale, but we do have a long way to go, and we cannot afford to be complacent and make any mistakes.

Dream.Team.Fight.Win
Here goes

Coach: You guys did fine considering that we rotated everyone and there was never a fixed team out on the court. I'm happy that all of you got significant play-time.

Gryphons 44 - 69 Tagawa

The prospect of term starting the next day was certainly a factor as we got off to a very lethargic start, allowing Tagawa's key player #9 to hit 4 three pointers in the opening quarter. In the second quarter, we managed to hold them to 9 points, and Tagawa never really managed to extend their 10 point lead until halfway through the 4 quarter. A breakdown in communication and the severe lack of intensity saw them surging on a 15 point streak and all of a sudden, they were up by 25 within a matter of minutes.
Fear before the opening tip was also possibly another factor as we faced a club with a very strong reputation in the basketball fraternity, but the team has learnt from this game that the standards between club teams and us are not extremely far, and we are capable of battling it out till the final whistle.
Our next game will be tomorrow, Monday 23rd June at SBC 5.30pm against Tong Why Sports Association.

T-Net Final RI 25 - 60 Unity Secondary School

This was to be our first final together as a squad, and our last preseason match in the run-up to our season, which will start officially on Monday. This would be our 2nd match without our captain, who was away.

We got outfought and out-rebounded by the Unity squad. Everything just went wrong for our team in the entire match. We started without Jordaan, our point guard had 4 fouls in the first quarter, and the list goes on. At the end of the 1st quarter alone, we were down by 16 points. We had plenty of unnecessary turnovers that let to breakaway lay-ups. However, most of their points were scored not because of these lay-ups but because of the rebounds that were collected after their missed lay-ups and shots. Definitely, we learnt the importance of box-ing out, because now, we cannot change our height or our jumping abilities, so the best way to collect our rebounds will be to box out hard and effectively.

The loss was a dear price to pay for the lesson, but the team has definitely learned a lot from the match, now knowing the difference in our teams' strengths and thus, we definitely have a long way to go and improve, and hopefully, we can do that fast.

Dream.Team.Fight.Win.

Its time to improve.

U-14 T-Net RI 44 - 34 Yuying Secondary School

This was our first game without our captain, but we still fought to our fullest.

We started out shakily, but our box-ing out was good as we managed to stop the Yuying squad from getting many offensive boards. We knew from the start that they were experts at offensive rebounding and we just put in the extra effort in order to stop them. Without Jordaan, our scoring was mainly shouldered by Justin and Brendan, who did not disappoint, although they did have a couple of turnovers in the match. In the end, we out-played the other team to come out tops and booked our spot in the t-net finals against unity, which will be played tmr, 3.15 at BAS/SBC (Geylang East)

Dream.Team.Fight.Win
Its time

Milo Youth Cup Final Round

Milo Youth Cup U16 Boys Final Round
22/6 Sun 1900hrs - Tagawa vs Gryphons
23/6 Mon 1730hrs - Gryphons vs Tong Whye Sports Association
25/6 Wed 2030hrs - Tong Whye Temple vs Gryphons
29/6 Sun 1000hrs - Gryphons vs Home United Dragons

• For all other fixtures: http://www.bas.org.sg/documents/MILO_JrBC_2008_Fixtures.xls
• Note that this is a 6-teamround robin final round and we carry over round 2's 4-point win over Chong Ghee SA.

Coach: This has been quite a good and useful tournament for us and you've surprised yourself by going so far. Treasure the opportunity to play against the best in your age group. You can be proud that you are the only school team among the top 6 teams.

U-14 T-Net RI 61-33 Catholic High

Finally, we've managed to beat Cat High (edited by coach)! and it was still a very much convincing win against the defending national and south-zone champions. 12.15pm today, we tipped off for one of the most important matches in our fixtures, a match between 2 traditional powerhouses in the south-zone.

Both teams came out strong from the tip, ending the quarter with the score tied at 10-10. The next quarter, however, our 5 was continuously broken by aaron, their sec 1 point guard. That was basically due to the lack of communication between the players whenever there was a screen. Our offense worked for us, with Jordaan lighting up with 9 consecutive points for us, allowing us to end the 26-22. In the 3rd and 4th quarter, we started our 2-2-1 trap, although our front row made several mistakes, we still managed to have many fast-breaks, limiting them to only 2 points in the 3rd and scoring 13. In the end, we won 61-33

Dream.Team.Fight.Win.
We can do it


Comment from Coach: The last time we beat Cat High in a C Div match was in 2005, when AnZhen and Danny's team triumphed over a resilient Cat High team 3x in that season. The following year, Cat High's dominance in C Div started. 2 years without a win is a long time, even though we came really close to them in the 2007 South Zone C Div finals.

RI-Paya Lebar CSC

Milo '16' Cup Boys
BAS
16/06/08

RI-Paya Lebar CSC
Final Score: 71-46

This was the first game with our full team back, and we were, back to business.

It didn't start all too well though, where we found ourselves down 0-5 within a few minutes. Our outside shots weren't hitting, but we clawed our way back to equalize the score at 9-9 at the end of the first quarter. Although we found it hard to defend their speedy point guard #11, with our full team back, we managed to take the game into our hands with some good defense and led 30-20 at the half. The third quarter was where our offense started to liven up, with the outside players hitting shots from all over the floor. We extended our lead to 51-29, and the game seemed to be over by then. The opposing team started to press in the fourth, but we managed to overcome their traps and get some fast breaks in the process. We won the game 71-46.

Of considerable mention would be Weixuan's 26 point game, which included 5 three-pointers.

A great boost to team morale!

U-14 T-Net RI 55-26 Hougang

The match was played on the 13 June, 11.30pm at CCAB. We started off strong, having strong defensive intensity which allowed us to get many free fast break chances and open baskets, resulting in a 10-5 first quarter lead. We extended that even further, going 15-7 in the 2nd quarter and ending the half 25-12 up. We stepped it up in the 4th quarter with our full-court press, getting a 30-8 run in the last quarter to win in 55-26.

We'll be facing off with Yio Chu Kang and Cat High in the next round; with the matches on tues and thurs, at CCAB. Hopefully, we'll be able to make it to the finals, which will be our first as a team.

RI-Chong Ghee Sports Club (Presbyterian High U-16)

Milo '16' Cup Boys
Kembangan Community Centre
14/06/08

RI-Chong Ghee Sports Club
Final Score: 51-47

When we saw Coach Low Tong walking up to the opposing team, we all started laughing. And when Coach came, we laughed even harder. It was to be the battle of the coaches, our coaches, and an exciting game it would be. We started off the quarter making free throws (which was very unlike our previous games), and countering their 1-1-3 defense with someone at the high post, and the score was tied at 12 at the end of the quarter. The second quarter was where we upped our intensity and started to trap properly, and we led 24-21 at the half. We pushed our lead in the third quarter to 40-34, and this set the mood for a tense final quarter, where we held on despite not being able to guard their dominant centre #15. Both sides grabbed their fair share of offensive and defensive rebounds, and 4 players from the opposing team fouled out.

Lessons learnt:
1) Box out
2) Half front the big guy, don't let him get the ball (wings come down and pressure him when he does)

Coach: I think we must say that Chong Ghee only had 8 players dressed for the game and we were pretty fortunate in that light, even though JC was absent. On hindsight, it was also significant that we did not lose that slender lead. Our +4 point differential proved to be crucial compared to the -2 we suffered vs Home U.

U-14 T-Net RI 56-31 Springfield

The match was at 1pm, 12 June, CCAB. We came into the match ready to play, correcting all the mistakes from our previous matches and eventually beat them 56-31. We executed both our defense and offense well.

2nd round, here we come. On a side note, the next match will be tmr, 13 June at CCAB at 11.15am.

Gryphons Cup Basketball Tournament – A Brief History

This year, 15 teams will be competing in the annual Gryphons Cup Basketball Tournament, on 19, 26 and 27 July 2008. Besides the current four college and school teams from RJC and RI, the other 11 teams will comprise cohort of players who have worn the Raffles basketball jerseys for the past 30 years. The oldest team come from the Pioneers Team made up of players above 40 years old.

And yes, the Gryphons Cup was started by the Pioneers players in 1983 as a gathering of old and current Raffles basketball players to maintain the proud basketball tradition in RI/RJC. That year, four teams then – two old boys teams and two school teams participated in the tournament. Since its inception, after 25 years have passed, and this annual tournament has continued and grown to its current format of 15 to 16 teams. More than 120 players graduating from different RI/RJC cohorts (some combined their teams) participate in the tournament each year. The venue changed from Grange Road to Mount Sinai to Bishan (RI) and now, Bishan (RJC). This proud tradition is definitely due to the enthusiastic and spirited efforts of the organizers from different cohorts each year and credit must be given to the Classics Team (the next oldest team) led by Kelvin and Pow and Poh Kwang for making this Tournament alive each year.

Indeed, the Gryphons Cup is not just a one-time gathering each year. Every year, months before the tournament (usually in Jul/Aug), old basketball players from RI/RJC will gather at the RJC courts every Saturday afternoon to continue their sparring against other Raffles teams. And these sessions have also helped the current college/school players to learn from the older ones in terms of playing skills and court experiences.

Definitely, without doubt, this Gryphons Cup will remain always as a strong proud tradition in Raffles basketball!

Since we are on history, let me share the birth of Raffles basketball. It actually started in 1972 in old RI ground at Stamford Road when a group of players formed the first Raffles “C” Team. Without any coach, these RI players learned the basketball skills on their own and started to challenge against the powerful Chinese schools then. Finally in 1976, the same team made the breakthrough in basketball by becoming the first English school to qualify for the National A Basketball Final. They lost the final match but hard-earned respect was earned from the various basketball school teams then. The same team qualified for the Final again in 1977 but again, we lost to a much better team (either Hwa Chong or Anglican High). For the next four years, RI qualified for three National A Basketball Final (exception being 1979). That is, in the first six-year period (from 1976 to 1981), RI played in five National A Basketball Finals and finally, after the long wait, the first RI Team to win the National Basketball Title was the 1981 Team. All these players in the 76-81 teams make up the Pioneer Team and many of them are playing in this year’s Gryphons Cup as a traditional gathering for them to come together and reminisce and chit-chat about those good old days.

Written by : Swee Teck, 1981 Captain.

U16 Youth Cup

The U16 team has qualified for the second round of the tournament, and our second round games are as follows:

14th June Saturday 4pm @ Kembangan Community Centre
16th June Monday 7pm@ SBC Court 1

The other group has not finished their round of games yet so our opponents for the next round are still unknown.

U-14 T-Net RI 52-24 Yishun Secondary School

The match was played today, 10 June at 12pm at CCAB, we welcomed back coach, who had returned from malaysia.

We started the match good, not as well as our previous match but it was still good. We started off with 3-2 zone, but shifted quickly to the 5 full-court press. We managed to get quite a few steals but we were unable to stop number 12 who was their key point guard. By the end of the 1st we were up 23-8.

However, when we changed to the 3-22 press, we made several mistakes that allowed number 12 to break our entire defense by himself. Also, we were unable to break their press when they started pressing, which is very bad. In the end, we still managed to beat them 52-24

The mistakes that we made:
1. Did not respond to instructions: the wings did not cross-screen for each other during the inbounding pass, which was basically what coach explicitly told us to do in order to break their press.
2. Emo: we let our emotions take over.
3. 3-22 zone: Our front row did not apply enough pressure on number 12, and our 2nd row did not 'close the door' on number 12. Our press was too dis-organized, letting number 12 take over.
4. Foul-trouble: 3 centers combined for 11 fouls, with our point guard also having 3.

We have a lot to do, so it starts now.

U-14 T-Net RI 75-27 Ahmad Ibrahim

Match started at 1pm, CCAB on the 5th June. We had to play the match without coach, who was in Malaysia; but we had muscleman, who came down to coach us for this one game.

We started the game brilliantly, which was a stark contrast to our normal matches. We played 3-2 zone right from the start, but managed to get key steals that led to fast breaks and easy baskets on the other end. We managed to convert most of our underbaskets, which was another source of points. We limited them to 6 points in the 1st quarter.

In the 2nd, however, our defense appeared disoriented, not jamming the cuts and allowing for a few easy baskets. Our defensive rotation also came much too slowly. We slowly moved away from the 3-2 and went to press full court or 2-2-1. The trapping however, was not very strong as we allowed them to break the press, and we never managed to recover after the press was broken.

In the end, our sheer will and determination paid off and we eventually beat them 75-27.

Errors from the match:
1. Post not communicating in 3-2: post communication is vital and due to the lack of this is the 1st half, we leaked some easy baskets where we could be severely punished in the future.
2. Not communicating during the press: lack or mis-communication led to many mistakes on defence and often, an open man sprinting down the court, this could turn out to be a big problem in the future.
3. Not covering man after press is broken: we failed to return to defence and start our 1-11 after our press was broken, leading to a couple of free baskets.

U16 Youth Cup Gryphons 54 - 45 Henderson

Going into our final round one game, we were down to 8 available players as 4 of the guys were overseas with their families, and Coach Danny Chua Zhen Guang was responsible for our win in this one. 

After a double postponement of this game, we finally managed to have the opportunity of playing it this afternoon. We started off the game very lethargically, and failed to prevent henderson's outside shots from hitting. 20 of henderson's 26 first half points were from outside shooting, and as demoralising as it was, the team didn't give in. We entered the halftime break down by 11 points, a familiar situation we've faced throughout all 3 first round games. However, the fact that we were trailing and risked losing the game was the catalyst for a spirited second half comeback, and we pulled off another 20 point turnaround to maintain a steady 10 point lead till the final whistle.

I am still unsure of how the second round groups are drawn and when the games will be played, my apologies, will keep everyone posted ASAP though.

T-Net U14 Tournament 2008

Our C Div boys are using this T-Net tournament as a pre-season training.

3 June Tuesday 1600hrs @ CCAB - RI vs Queenstown SS
5 June Thursday 1300hrs @ CCAB - Ahmad Ibrahim SS vs RI
10 June Tuesday 1200hrs @ CCAB - RI vs Yishun SS
12 June Thursday 1300hrs @ CCAB - Springfield vs RI

Come watch the boys in action as they shoot to wrestle the Zone Title from Catholic High!

U16 Youth Cup Gryphons 59 - 61 Home United

It was an extremely physical game yesterday night, and making most of our foul shots, we had a 6 point lead going into the halftime break. It was in the second half where coach's absence was felt as we failed to deal with their trap successfully for a rather long stretch. The lead was traded many times, and after a few dubious calls at the end, we failed to tie the game and ended losing by a mere 2 point margin.

In order to qualify for the next round, we will have to beat Henderson tomorrow, Saturday 31st may 4pm @ Kembangan Mrt. The team would also like to thank Mr Ong Swee Teck for coming down to support us, and congratulate Mr Choo on a successful coaching debut :D

U18 Youth Cup: Gryphons - Combined Schools Red

Final Score:
26-78

Although the team was affected by complications and ended up with only 5 players playing the full 40 minutes, they did far better than the scoreline suggested. Despite starting the game off shakily, the team managed to put together some good offensive and defensive plays. Despite being matched up against the stronger and more skillful Singapore Schools U18 team, the 5 Raffles warriors didn't back down and hide in their shell. In fact, they played better than usual because they went out to fight hard and put in their best effort. So, good job to the team, we're proud of you :)

On a side note, Gryphons #5 Kevin Boo had a very nice block shot on transition defense. He also made good hustle plays, the most notable one being a long sprint to save a bound-for-out-of-bounds ball and throwing it at the feet of one of the opposing players and turning it to our possession. Center Feng Yifei also did very well in the paint with numerous rebounds and a good shooting percentage in the area. #7 Nicholas Chong played well and had a nice foul in shot! :D #11 Simon rebounded well and #8 Chey Zheng Feng did well with defensive rebounds and a couple of treys :)

The team's next match would be against Tagawa (who beat Weixiong by 60+ points) this coming Sunday, 1 June @ SBC Court 2. See you there.

Milo Youth Cup U18 Fixtures

29 May 1900hrs @ Kembangan MRT Basketball Courts
Singapore Schools Red vs Gryphons

1 Jun 1430hrs @ SBC2
Gryphons vs Tagawa

8 Jun 1500hrs @ SBC1
Gryphons vs Wei Xiong

Milo U16 Cup - Gryphons 66 - 48 Kaixuan

The U16 team was initially made up of sec 2s and 3s, hoping to make use of the tournament to gain exposure. However, after some disputes over the minimum age for teams, there had to be some adjustments made, and now the b'div 08 team (sec3s and 4s) will be playing in probably their last tournament together in RI jerseys.

We played our first game yesterday against Kaixuan, finally getting the chance to play against teams without any overage players in this tournament. The game started off very slow-paced, and at one point through the second quarter we found ourselves down by a whopping 18 points due to a streak by kaixuan which included them getting several foul-ins and numerous successful 3p attempts. Thankfully, we came back strong after a time-out and our traps and defense saved us yet again from an embarrassing defeat. We turned the 20 point deficit around and led by 1 at the end of the third quarter. It was evident in the final quarter that the Kaixuan players couldn't seem to match up with our pace of the game and we eventually broke away to triumph by 18 points.

We will be playing Home United (protectors) tomorrow, 8.30pm @ SBC. They are a team consisting of several star players from various secondary schools, and we'll be playing without coach, but the taste of victory is surely too sweet for us to give in before the game has even started and we'll be gunning for an upset.

From Coach: For Those Still Getting Over It

We all fail.

But it is not failing that hurts.

What hurts is knowing that you didn't give your best.

(It's all the "what ifs")

Nothing else should haunt you for long.

==================================================================

You give your best not because you need to impress people.

You give your best because that's the ony way to enjoy your basketball, your work and everything else.

RJC - VJC

Final score:
RJC 35-42 VJC

This was the deciding game for both VJC and us. In this winner-takes-all match, the eventual victor would earn the right to play kingpins HCI in the semi-finals. We went into the game all pumped up and ready to dream, team, fight and WIN.

Yet, as the score suggests, in a very low scoring game, RJC lost out simply because of its inability to convert the baskets. We did an excellent job on the defensive end as a team, shutting down the opposing star players #4 and #14 and interrupted their offensive performances, even though they did contribute their fair share of points.

The 3s just wouldn't go in, the second chance points just wouldn't be converted, the free throws just wouldn't go in. We could blame the ball, we could blame the crowd and the noise but we did ourselves in. Kudos to VJC, they deserve their ticket to the top 4 while the favourite-for-the-final RJC team that played far, far below their usual standards could only fantasize about what could have been.

A premature end to our campaign leaves us wondering what went wrong. We can never and will never forget this excruciating loss. I can't, I won't.

RJC - AJC

Final score:
RJC 55-62 AJC

They say, "Offense brings entertainment, defense wins games and rebounds win championships". For a game we lost by a mere 7 points, defense was horrible and rebounds on both ends of the court was unbelievably shameful and suicidal.

This is a game lost on the boards. We started neck to neck ending the 1st quarter 13-13. When AJC started to pull away with 10 point leads, we never gave up and tried to pull closer each time. Lady luck was on our side and we were hitting our shots from downtown quite well - 11 team 3pointers by the end of the game (considering we were shooting about 20% from the 3 point line since game 1). However, everytime we tried to cut AJC's lead, their national player #9 would get an offensive rebound, score the second chance points and we, back at square one, could only whine and beg for proper block outs on the defensive boards. AJC's #6 also hit several crucial dagger 3 pointers that consistently hindered our efforts in making a run to cut their lead.

In the end, impressive composure by AJC's #6, a good outing at the 3 point line and a near 20-20 performance by their center #9 secured their victory. Our imbalance scoring at the offensive end, coupled with our decision to play the 2-2-1 despite AJC's success at press breaking made sure that the 7 point lead was insurmountable.

RJC - NYJC

Final score:
RJC 50-38 NYJC

We played a pretty sloppy game for our 1st 2nd Round match in recent years (RJC made it past the 1st Round for the first time in a handful of years). The well prepared NYJC team managed to race ahead with an 11-2 lead. However, we overcame our usual 1st quarter jitters and managed to maintain an uncomfortable lead of about 10 points throughout the game.

The opponents came prepared for our 2-2-1 and we were left "chasing their dust" many times when they broke our press. We outlasted them in the end. Kudos to NYJC for their spirit and preparation (they went on to beat eventual finalists AJC by about 10 points in their last group game).

Girls' Report: National Schools A Division Basketball Championships

On behalf of Valerie, the Captain of RJC A Division Girls' Basketball Team:

End of Round 1

RJC vs YJC
56 – 23

RJC vs ACJC
62 – 19

RJC vs JJC
47 – 11

3 games down; 5 more to go.

It’s the end of round 1 and the girls have successfully topped the group by defeating all three opposing schools, hence earning ourselves a ticket to the quarter finals, where we would be facing off with NYJC (9^th May, 3:30pm), TPJC (12^th May, 3:30pm) and finally, our arch rival - VJC (14^th May, 3:30pm) in the coming week.

Three games have been played so far, but we have yet to witness our best performance. Despite sailing through all three games (as reflected in the scores), the team believes that we are capable of much better plays than what we have shown so far. It has been acknowledged that our fundamental problem lies in us lacking team play and sustainability. However, this is not a major cause for concern as the team has been working hard to solve this problem together through trainings and team talks; and recently, there has been a notable progress in the team’s performance which we are definitely looking forward to display in the games to come.

Improvement, both as a team and an individual, was evident with each passing game. The game against JJC was probably our best game thus far. There was evidence of good teamwork and formidable defence, especially in the first quarter, where we convincingly led 23 – 3. However, we were unable to maintain such stellar performance till the end of 4 quarters, where we found our opponents outscoring us in the last quarter.

Overall, we would say that invaluable lessons are learned with each game played. We have been training hard and playing comfortably as a team, with our coach's unwavering support and guidance, gearing us to face our subsequent rivals. It is going to get tougher in the quarter finals; but we are not ready to give our opponents an easy time either!