The match was held at 26 February, 4pm at Singapore American School’s indoor courts.

It was the third match of our ISIBL tournament. Despite the scoreline, we could not play any worse than we could. With almost everyone having the mentality that we're gonna lose badly, we started the game nervous and anxious, causing many many turnovers and mistakes on defense, ending the first quarter 14-5. In the second quarter, we played a 3-2 zone and our defense slightly improved. However, we just made too many mistakes on offense like the centres dribbling due to anxiousness, key players creating too many turnovers, ultimately ending with an astonishing scoreline of 28-10.

The second half showed much better play after we switched to a 2-11, and the pressure we gave SAS resulted many turnovers, and we limited their scoring to just 5 in the third quarter while Chun Cheong help narrow the scoreline with a couple fast breakaways. The last quarter we were determined to do our best to catch up, putting pressure on SAS with a full court man-to-man defense. However, due to the large margin in the first half, the game ended in SAS's favour, 41-28.

Lessons from this match:

- Look to pass after getting rebound, be slow to dribble.

- for PGs, swing the ball to the wings soon.

- Every chance at offense is precious, treasure every shot.

-Do not give up just because we think we're weak

- posts must screen fast when running boxes.

- pressure your guy even when he's without the ball.
- open your mouth and TALK, call for the ball.

MVPs:
RI: Chan Chun Cheong
SAS: Brian Paul, Tiga Deleastillo

A Timely Review of the B Div 2009 Season...So Far...

(To many of the old boys who have not received as many updates about the B Div Campaign this year, my apologies. This is the 1st of 2 crazy years where the basketball calendar is jam-packed into the 1st half of the year, just to create space for Asian Youth Games and Youth Olympic Games. And I've been swamped, needless to say.)

RI just qualified for the Nationals and will be playing Queensway Secondary 2 Mar 1300hrs @ CCAB. We did it by winning all matches comfortably except for a 30-point loss to Catholic High.

This is probably the most talented B Div I've ever coached all these years. We have great offensive talent and some outstanding individual players. This is also a team of great passion, together with that a tendency to self-destruct sometimes emotionally.

A team that has trained the least among all my batches, but somehow has also remained rather fresh at this stage of the competition. Not many teams want to play RI but we are also not obvious contenders.

At this stage we are just happy to have made the Nationals. It's not something to take for granted, and a few powerhouses have already ended their season, notably Jurong Sec from the West, Ngee Ann from the East and Ahmad Ibrahim and Woodlands Ring from the North.

This team is also out to erase and put right the forgettable memories of crashing out prematurely 2 years ago in the C Div Nationals (self-destruct mode), and getting beaten on fitness in the South Zone Finals. Much determination and firepower present. So far we are taking one step at a time but I have a good feeling that we can go far.

Come watch the boys in action!

RI 53 - 34 Queenstown Sec

RI 53 - 34 Queenstown Secondary

In the game played earlier this afternoon, the team emerged victorious by a comfortable margin.

The score may not suggest this but today's game against QSS was a do-or-die game, the winners would proceed to the semi finals; the losing team's season would end. Thankfully, we made the fullest use of our build up and preparation for this game and got off to a blistering start, never looking back after taking the lead.

In the course of the 4 quarters, a key tactic for us was to effectively stop #11 (their 1.90m centre) from getting feeds, and to prevent #14 (their star player and main offensive threat) from getting to the basket. The team managed to work together on defence, shutting out both key individuals from the opposition.

We took a 20-6 first quarter lead, and a significant moment in the game came midway through the second quarter, when #14 of QSS had to leave the game due to a sprained ankle. From then on we took a 35 point lead going into the final quarter. In the final 10 minutes of the game, Coach gave everyone minutes on court and a series of long range shots, as well as points of a fullcourt press allowed Queenstown to cut the deficit to a mere 19 points.

We have qualified for the semi finals as group runners-up, and will be playing Queensway Sec next Monday, 2/3/09 at 1pm, CCAB courts. Many thanks to all who came down to support us today, especially our PE Head Mr Vincent Quek and HOD Mr Azmy. 

To my team:

It was a great showing today guys, let's stay focused, play our game, and emerge victorious in the semis. 

DREAM TEAM FIGHT WIN. BROTHERHOOD!

RI 51- 81 CHS

RI 51 - 81 CHS

In our third game of the second round, we succumed to a rather large defeat by defending champions Catholic High school by a margin of 30 points. Going into the game with Wednesday's must-win encounter with queenstown in mind, the team managed to accomplish the goals we had set for ourselves before the game, played a relaxed yet fast-paced game due to the tempo of the opposing team, and most importantly, nobody left the game injured and we were well rested for the clash against Queenstown.

Also, everyone managed to get some minutes on court and we certainly made full use of the game to get ready physically, mentally and emotionally in two days' time. There goes our unbeaten streak, but hopefully the tactic pays off! 

RI 50 - 34 Henderson Secondary

RI 50 - 34 Henderson

Knowing that we were going to face a very similar team with regards to style of play as Kent Ridge, due to the fact that Henderson and KR share the same coach, we were better prepared for many launches from behind the 3p line from the other team. We managed to shut down their 3point shots to a rather low percentage, however #9 and #4 from the opposition caught fire from behind the arc towards the end of the game to cut our 23 point lead to a mere 16 points.

We will be playing defending champions Catholic High tomorrow, 2.15pm @ CCAB and we will be expecting a very long and hard fought battle.

RI 68 - 41 Kent Ridge

Apologies for the delay, Daniel has been very busy of late.

RI 68 - 41 Kent Ridge Sec

In the first game of the second round, we were up against Kent Ridge Secondary, and their team's style of play which mostly revolved around creating a lot of open 3point shots for each other did prove a problem as they managed to catch us off guard numerous times. However, we were very active on the boards and managed to dominate most of the defensive rebounds at our end. It was a very physical game with Kent Ridge reaching the limit of 5 team fouls by the halfway mark of every quarter, however we left the game with no injuries, and managed to maintain a stable 30 point lead till the end of the game.

Gryphons Basketball Tee-Shirt (Give your comments)

South Zone 2nd Round

Here are the fixtures for 2nd round of South Zone B Div Basketball Tournament

18 Feb Wed 1300hrs: RI vs Kent Ridge

20 Feb Fri 1415hrs: Henderson vs RI

23 Feb Mon 1415hrs: Catholic High vs RI

25 Feb Wed 1530hrs: Queenstown vs RI

The teams in the other group are: Pierce, Gan Eng Seng, ACS Barker, Queensway Sec, Holy Innocents High

RI 58-40 OSS

11/2/09
South Zone 1st Round
RI 58-40 Outram Secondary School

We went into this game knowing that we had already qualified for the second round, and intended to treat it as a training experience--how to play against the tall guy.

Overcoming a shaky start, we managed to take control with a 14-7 lead at the end of the first quarter. Playing against a smart and quick-thinking team, we found them well adverse to our presses and traps. Yet, we pressed on and ended the half 28-19. The second half was also very evenly contested, and we held on to win 58-40.

3 Learning Points:
1) Don't jump for the steal unless you're really sure
2) Press Properly
3) Deny the tall guy

The draw for the 2nd Round will be this Friday.

RI 80-43 HIH

4/2/09
South Zone 1st Round
RI 80-43 Holy Innocent High

This game was the crunch match of the 1st round, as both teams had not lost prior to the match. 3 of our players were sick, so morale was not as high as it could be, but we remained undaunted.

In the first quarter, RI raced to a 23-7 lead with powerful drives in the half-court offense. The second quarter saw their speedy point guard break through our press, so after some alteration we finished 40-17 at the half. We continued in our stride in the following two quarters and tried to play the posts in the last quarter, to some effect. We ended the game 80-43.

Our next match is tomorrow against Outram!

A Good Reminder

http://ch.redsports.sg/2009/02/03/edges-out-for-2007-title/#more-191

A good reminder from the Catholic High Basketball archives...of how we lost...

This was now the exciting part. The rest of the quarter was played at its highest level of intensity as both teams were determined to clinch the title. A crucial moment came when No 12 of the Raffles team came down with leg cramps and had to sit out the rest of the game. Catholic High took maximum advantage of the situation by reverting to a zonal defence and putting the ball to their centres Goh Kong Tat and Benny Lam at every opportunity. They built up the lead slowly back up to 4 points at 54-50.

With 2 minutes left on the clock, Raffles had to make something happen to close the gap. They did exactly that by going on a full court man to man defense on the Catholic High team. This seemed to pay dividends immediately when they quickly closed the gap to 53-56, albeit off a crucial turnover by Catholic High’s centre Benny Lam.

However, this pressure defence was taking its toll on the Raffles players as 2 more came down with leg cramps and had to be stretchered off the court by their teammates. The better fitness of Catholic High’s players showed with them running 3 consecutive fast-breaks and going on a 8-4 run to win the game 64-57.

Do not live to regret what happened yesterday

Live not to regret what will happen today.

Article in RED Sports

I read this in RED Sports - some reference to RI Basketball

http://redsports.sg/2009/02/03/ri-acs-sji-football/

"For SJI, for the year 2007, their highest achievement in team sports was a third-place finish in the C Division Rugby Championship. For RI, their highest achievement in team sports for 2008 was a third-place finish in the C Division Basketball Championship."

If this is true, then we have done well.

Yet in a limited sense, it is easier to achieve success in a 5-man team game compared to sports with bigger numbers. Of course this is mitigated by the huge number of teams in Basketball Tournaments.

But for RI, I think we are forever going for something better than what we've achieved.

RI 68-28 ACS International

30/1/09
South Zone 1st Round
RI 68-28 ACS International

The inflated scoreline doesn't tell much about this scrappy game.

We were down 6-0 at the start, and even though we fought back after the initial shock, the quarter ended 11-12 in their favour. Weixuan's inspired play brought us back in the game and we romped to a 29-18 lead at the half, still nervous from what happened in the first quarter. By then we knew the game was ours and we pushed the pace in the second half, extending our lead to 40 points by the final whistle.

Yet, we did not manage to execute our plays properly and there wasn't enough intensity on our part.

Next Wednesday will be better.