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.