U16 ISIBL RI 17 vs UWC 43

Today kicks off our ISIBL campaign.

The match started off with UWC's number 19 Prithvi winning the tip-off, and soon we found ourselves facing physically dominant players than us. Much smaller and less physical than them, we were out-rebounded many many times when their forwards took their shots, them even grabbing the rebounds over our heads. Though not all of them were converted, the number of rebounds they got killed us and we were limited to only 10-2, with Bao Kun scoring the only basket in that quarter.

The second quarter was not much different from the first, where sloppy offensive plays and poor rebounding almost murdered us. The only points we got was only after a successful screen, where our forward fired a mid range shot. On defense we were terribly careless, allowing them to receive the ball in the middle over and over again after the post players set screens for the forwards, which resulted in the pathetic 21-4 scoreline by the end of the first half.

Third quarter was the only time where our scoring really began. Changing to a different strategy which included firing of more three pointers, we released more shots, though not all of them were converted. Fortunately, one of our forwards converted both his free throws and took one for the team. Also, one of our sec one also scored the only three pointe made by our team in this game! However, the final quarter we still couldn't really pull it together. Though we drew some really nice fouls, it still wasn't enough, and we were destroyed 9-5.

Despite knowing that we were going to have a disadvantage due to our smaller size, we still didn't treasure every possession and we made silly mistakes that were just due to poor planning and communication. That was the worst part of it. Hopefully we can take a break now, and come back stronger for next week matches.