RI 48 - 45 HCI

This match would be one that we will never forget.

Not because it is the first match of nationals, or because we did not repeat the mistakes of the B division, but because today's match was the first time we fought as a team, strong and hard to win the game, despite calls that did not go our way (edited by coach)

We did loads and loads of mental preparation, and when the game started, we went off at full burst, the bench talking, everyone focusing on defense and executing their plays well. But then all this seem to change when their power forward, no. 13 scored a fast break lay up, and somehow our momentum was distorted. We then exchanged baskets and ended the quarter 8-6 in our favour.

The second quarter, we were broken down by their offensive rebounding and we made many mistakes, with the referees and umpires calling many times against us. Most of us were frustrated, our fast breaks were also stolen by the quick hands of the opponents. On the good side, we did managed to foul out number 11 and 12 of HCI.

The third quarter, we seemed to have woken up, and we started to play ferociously with them after coach called a timeout to calm ourselves down. We fought back hard and did not allow them any easy baskets. Good post plays were done and Yves converted his two free throws to bring the score 25-27.

The last quarter was a world of difference. We had many good post plays, hit two three pointers and we rushed back after every time we missed, which is the fight we needed in this game all along. Down at the last couple of seconds, we used a few presses to force turnovers, and we drew many fouls. Daniel and Alex converted their free throws to bring up our score, and Daniel hit the last three pointer of the game to win the game by the slim lead, though he could have finished his last second lay in time.

Dream.Team.FIGHT.Win. This is what the fight in our CCA motto is about, we never give up, no matter how poor the score is. This what makes Raffles Basketball special, it's the spirit of never giving up that makes us an unbreakable and bonded team. From Daniel: " We have won by fighting, and we SHALL win by fighting." Let's make our opponents terrified (correction by coach: we don;t bother about how they feel, we focus on our game - anything else distracts us from our focus) before they even play us and let them fear our fighitng spirit which makes this team so strong.

RI BBALL C DIV '09
Fighting for our lives