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!