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.