RI 69-53 PHS

The game was played at Raffles Institution basketball courts on Monday, 28 January.
The match was scheduled to start at 4.45, but with delays to the referees, who eventually didn’t make it to the game, the game started at 5.30.
The match started out shakily, with a lack of communication on defence, and a lot of forced shots on offence, we ended the quarter down 19-12.
After the break, we upped our gear, with more pressurizing defence, and we soon fought our way back into the game, ending the half trailing by 25-24. In the 2nd half, we pushed our defence into a higher level, ending the 3rd quarter up 37-49. In the last quarter, we slowly increased the lead and ended the game 53-69.
And that was the start to our ISIBL campaign!!

Also to add: the mvp candidates:

RI:
Jordaan Goh
Justin Chua
Brendan Sim

Presbyterian High:
Nicholas Chee
Ng Jun Jie
Andrew Wong

RI 65-34 Peicai

25th Jan 08

We faced Peicai Secondary School in the 2nd Match of our B Division campaign.

We started off the match brightly with our pressure defense and raced to an 18-8 lead by the first quarter.

We managed to stop their star forward from his driving layups, and introduced our own special weapon, going into the half with a 37-20 lead.

The third and fourth quarter played out in similar fashion,

and the game ended,
RI 65-34 Peicai

B Div Campaign 2008

South Zone 1st Round

1. Catholic High
2. Raffles Institution
3. Peicai Secondary
4. Guangyang Secondary
5. Henderson Secondary

Supposedly group of death for all other teams because Catholic High and RI are in this group.

We do not have to be distracted by that at all. We just have to focus on clearing every team when they come. Peicai and Henderson are no pushovers.

My Buddy in Our Foxhole

Our B Div team plays an ALL-OUT, UPTEMPO, HIGH-PRESSURE-DEFENSE game. We used it to beat Guangyang by 69-24 last Friday.

(We have no choice - that's the only way to make up for comparative lack in offensive talent)

Besides commitment and hardwork, which is a given if any team wants to play good defense, the real building block for such a playing style is TRUST.

Trust among the teammates. Trust that:

• when I am busting my back closing down the ball, you are not exposing me by slacking
• when I race 15m down the court to cover you, you are doing your best to hold up so they don;t score before I reach
• when no one is monitoring you, you are not cheating on PT just as I am giving all out (because team defense is only as strong as the weakest guy)
• when I scream out loud for the interest of the team, you will give the benefit of doubt even if I do not say it perfectly

Trust takes time to build - hard to accumulate, easily destroyed.

Destroyed by careless words, lack of communication and choosing not to clarify when there is a negative thought. And insisting that "I am right and you are wrong".

(because then we declare that my personal reputation and "being right" is more important than team unity)

We will collapse this season if we do not major on defense. We will collapse this season if we do not make effort to trust and to improve trust.

How far can we go? Very far. There is nothing impossible for a united team.

Hey there bdiv'08!

I know i don't play much but i think the defensive intensity today was really good, and as we saw from today it's not that easy to keep up with our 40 minute trapping. What we need now is MORE NOISE on court, especially from the starters. No referee blows fouls for shouting out to your teammates and to yourself, so let's make some real MANLY NOISE in the games ahead. We can't afford to slip up and lose either of the next 2 games, but the challenge's there for us to take it.

Peicai next friday, 25th of january. 1pm AGAIN. DTFW yeah :D

(don't know if such posts are allowed, if not then coach please remove the post xiexie)

RI 69-24 Guangyang

Today sparked off our B Division campaign!
We faced Guangyang Secondary School at CCAB.
We went into the match with two main players ill but played hard with our range of pressurizing defences and won 69-24.
It started off shakily, and after letting in 3 open threes, we found ourselves down 9-8 just before the end of the first quarter. Coach called a timeout and we started to intensify our defense and managed to sneak a 12-11 lead at the break.
We upped our gear in the second quarter, scoring 21 unanswered points leading 33-11 at the half.
We relaxed a bit in the third and found ourselves leading 45-22.
The last quarter was where we showed our depth and dominance, repeatedly stealing the ball for open layups near the end, winning the quarter 24-2 and the match 69-24.

What a morale-boosting way to start our season!