New Schedule for U14 AND1 Tournament

Here is the new schedule for the postponed matches.

Wed 2/12 1630hrs - Springfield vs RI

Wed 9/12 1630hrs - Jurong Sec vs RI

Sat 12/12 1600hrs - Eastview vs RI

Note: Unity Sec has withdrawn from the tournament hence the match is cancelled.

We will be wearing dark for all the matches.

U14 AND1 Tournament RI 71-33 Ahmad Ibrahim

When we started warming up, we heard the organiser saying that number 12 of ahmad ibrahim is big, strong and fast and a capable scorer.

But it doesn't matter.

We started off nervously, with many rushed shots from our wings. Our defense broke down at first as number 12 drained the first bucket of the game by doing a simple backdoor cut. From then, coach told us to do more help side and leave the perimeter players. Slowly, we managed to get our momentum and despite the miss shots, Chun Cheong and mark came out of nowhere to grab the rebounds and put it back in. Those second chance points slowly allowed us to catch up and we ended 9-13.

Second quarter we started brilliantly, with Wee Xuan knocking down both his free throws after a hard foul. With more help side on their star player number 12, ahmad ibrahim started taking many outside shots which were off, and that led to easy fast breaks at the other end. We were stepping up on defense, and we eventually grew the lead to 13-31, with only one 3 pointer and free throw from AI.

The second half, coach drew up a simple play for us which allowed the wings to get more three point shots. Slowing down our tempo, we executed the play, though due to inattentiveness during the break, one of our wings ran the wrong play, and we were saved by a couple of baskets and offensive rebounds. Fourth quarter, we tried to maintain the same tempo and yet we still fell short, and even worse, one of our post players fouled out but at the same time, no. 12 came down with an injury. Coach substituted in a whole different platoon of players and we managed to get the play running, but the frustrating fact was we weren't hitting our shots. Thankfully, our second and third quarter lead pulled us away to a 33 point deficit victory, 71-33.

Never be intimidated by your opponents. It doesn't matter whether they have big players, it matters most that we do not look at them before the match. Looking at them would only result in uncertainty, fear and anxiety, which is definitely not what we need. Kudos to Bao Kun for his good passes and Chun Cheong for his excellent defensive efforts. Good job on our defensive effort, and let's keep improving in that direction.

MVPs:

(RI)

Bao Kun

Chun Cheong

(AI)

No. 12

Milo U15 Youth Cup 2nd Round

30 Nov 1510hrs: Tagawa (White) vs Gryphons @ SBC1
01 Dec 1230hrs: Gryphons vs HCI @ SBC1
03 Dec 1630hrs: T-Net (Red) vs Gryphons @ SBC2

U14 AND1 Tournament RI 66-50 Deyi

It ain't over till the fat lady sings.

This came true for us for today's game.

We started off pretty badly, having major lapses in defense which including the wings simple doing a backdoor cut over and over again for the easy two points. As we were much shorter compared to our opponent, our many attempts at scoring were denied by their imposing number 9 many times, who got 4 blocks alone in the first quarter. We did not run our plays properly and were too focused on doing our own things. It was always the little ill-discipline that messed up the plays, and it was no surprise we ended 7 points down.

The second quarter, one of our guards managed to capitalize on the widespread defense continuously split the zone by going middle. Though not all shots were converted, we managed to get a few easy offensive rebounds that we managed to put in. With more experienced players and more help side, we stopped the numerous backdoor cuts by their players and their baskets were low-percentage jumpers or fast break points. However, just like the previous, there was another wasted timeout which led to a fast break at the other end. We ended the first half 27-23.

The third quarter, we started to employ our zone press, but due to serious communication errors between our wings, we didn't manage to get our press going, and due to our last man not intercepting the incoming balls, that led to easy points at the other end. Fortunately, mark and chun cheong came through with some strong finishing and big shots respectively, including foul-ins and knocking down high post jumpers in the face of the defense. Yet, our defense was still leaking horribly, like our players defending behind the post players. Good news though, we got the lead by the buzzer up by 1.

It was a world of difference the next ten minutes.

We eventually fought back, going hard for defense and we foiled deyi's comeback using a half court 3-2 zone by simple passing to the open wing. Mark did a fantastic job of driving past the defense and finishing well, drawing fouls and converting most of his free throw shots. Eventually, our lead grew so big that we didn't even need to use the zone press anymore, and good defense sealed the game with us 16 points up.

Throughout the game, we were blocked many times by number 9, who were taller than us. Yet, we shouldn't be at all frustrated with that, instead, go for the ball when the defense least expects it and run the offense again. Doesn't matter how many times our shots get denied, it matters most what we do after we get blocked. Kudos to mark for his game-high 25 points, and his much improved shooting form, which allowed the net to swish everytime he took a shot, and Bao Kun for lasting throughout his 36 minutes on the court. Great effort everyone, now lets bring that momentum into Saturday's game.

MVPs:

(RI)

Mark Khoo

Bao Kun

(Deyi)

no. 11

U14 AND1 Tournament RI 41-69 PLCC

What happens when calls do not go your way and the opponent is playing much more rough and aggressive than you?

We never found an answer to that question during today's match.

We started off extremely badly, unable to get any fast break opportunities and bad hustle caused some easy points over at the other end. Many fouls were called and we allowed the other team to edge ahead with their stellar free throw percentage. In fact, most of the points in the first quarter from PLCC came from free throws, which gave them a 7-11 lead at the buzzer. The next quarter was poor, as we allowed them to outrun, out-dribble and out muscle us on offense, which allowed them easy layup opportunities and putbacks. Ill discipline also wasted a timeout called by coach to get a 3-point shot off, and we even let them intercept the ball for an easy breakaway at the other end. We ended the first half 12-21, 9 points down.

The second half was horrible.

We ended the third quarter 28 points down, 21-49. The numbers show a huge difference and for a good reason; our players were not treasuring every possession, and one of our players was man-marked by our opponents, thus with one man down on the play, we were unable to execute good offense. Also, we were crushed by their star players number 23 and 13 by their fast-breaks. Yet, the saddening fact was no one rushed back on defense, which accounted for those easy points.

Fourth quarter, we came up with a zonal press, managing to get a few turnovers here and there. Mark and Chun Cheong salvaged us with a couple baskets and shots from a simple play the coach designed. Unfortunately, perhaps it was an off-day for us that night, our shots from the charity stripe never seemed to hit their target. Our substitute point guards also were doing an inefficient job of moving the ball around, always looking to drive by themselves, or making their passes much too predictable. Perhaps the only good thing that came out of it was that we equaled our scoring to our opponents 20-20.

Today's match is an important one. When calls do not go your way, and if the opponents are much more rough and aggressive with you, you just have to be equally fierce back. We do not cover before the opponent team, and ALWAYS get back on defense. The safety man can't do it by himself. The duty of the point guard is also to move the ball around so our teammates can get an easy shot, and we would definitely have to work on that.

MVPs:

(RI)

Chun Cheong

(PLCC)

no. 23

no. 13

U14 AND1 Tournament RI 61-21 Clementi Town

(Due to the bad weather the recent days, the other matches are postponed to a later date and this is considered the first match of the tournament.)

Today sparked off the U14 AND1 tournament! Our team arrived there early and we were much more warmed up compared to the other team, and we were determined to perform our best for the first match.

Probably due to first game jitters, we loss the tip-off at the start, and we let number 6 of clementi town have an easy layup in, starting off at a slight disadvantage. Worse still, during the first quarter our plays were run very poorly and it let to serious turnovers, especially from short corner our post passer. Fortunately, we made it up with good defense at the other end which led to good breakaway layups, and we crawled back into the game with a couple of finishes by our perimeter players, mostly Mingjun and Bao Kun.

Second quarter, a new set of players comprising of more sec 2s came in. With an obvious edge in fitness, we ran the fast-break well, with Wee Xuan scoring 3 easy to back-to-back baskets to widen the lead. We broke their defense down as we took advantage of their confusion during our play, though one of our players did not ran the play smoothly due to initial communication problems. However, even though we got through the lose defense, we did not finish everytime and it was sad to say most of our points came from either fast-break or low percentage jumpers. We finished the first half with a 20 points lead of 32-12.

Beginning of the second half our opponents came out with a full-court press. Though our play didn't run smoothly, a few good passes from Bao Kun found the open man at the other end which led to easy layups. Good defensive pressure also prevented our opponents from scoring at all in that quarter along and we ran on a 19-0 run in the third. Fourth quarter, we finished strong for the win, though we let our opponents score a couple of points here and there.

Today's match we were running our plays poorly and relying too much on fast breaks. Even during our fast-breaks we couldn't finish at the rims every time. If our opponents were as athletic as us and could get back every time we ran the fast-break, we would have to rely on plays to win and that would be disastrous for us. Relax, go home and have a good rest, and start praying that it wouldn't rain tomorrow.

MVPs:

(RI)

Bao Kun

Wee Xuan

(Clementi Town)

No. 14

Milo U15 Youth Cup Results

Gryphons 39-30 Bedok View Secondary School

This match was played without Coach, as he was away in China for a business trip, and so we were coached by Liu Dong. Milo Cup has a rule that says that only 6 players can play in the 1st quarter, and a different 6 in the 2nd quarter, so this is very much like primary school basketball, where each player can only play a max of 3 quarters. We started this match brilliantly, pressing hard, grabbing rebounds, and attacking well. Our defense worked for us in the 1st quarter, and we limited them to only 3 points while scoring 13. The 2nd and 3rd quarters were horrible. We failed to convert our underbaskets or layups, our defense was leaking horribly, and we just played badly. We combined for a total of 5 points in the 2 quarters, while allowing them to score 19. At the start of the 3rd quarter, we were down 22-18. In the last quarter, we cam back hard. This time around, we defended and gave it our best shot because we didn't want to open our campaign with a loss. We fought hard, went for all the loose balls, and shot well. In that quarter we outscored Bedok View 21-8, and finished the match 39-30

Gryphons 32-49 T-Net @ Bukit Merah

This was a tough match, and the score was close primarily because the other team played their 2nd team for most of the match. It was a disappointing game, we tried our best but we were never close. We allowed them to drive to the basket too easily, and our rebounds were nearly non-existent. We also found out that Milo Cup does not allow the teams to play a zone press, which meant that our defense was 'disallowed'. We were outplayed by the other team.

Gryphons 77-34 Clementi Town

We played very well for the first half of this match. We rebounded hard in the first half, and defended well as a team. After several reminders, we finally got the weak side defense going in the first half, and also fought hard for the rebounds. We cleared up the boards, preventing the other team from getting easy put-backs, and also starting fast-breaks for our team. It worked extremely well for us in the 1st and 2nd quarter, where we outscored the opponents 22-6 and 21-2 respectively. In the 2nd half, things changed, as we wanted to get more steals, and started to do our own individual things instead of playing as a team. We didn't rebound as a team anymore, allowing for them to grab more defensive and offensive rebounds. We were also unable to break their full-court press. In the fourth quarter, we tried to outscore them, instead of focusing our efforts on defense. We also missed many underbaskets in the last quarter. However, we still managed to pull off a victory, mostly due to the good defense and rebounding that we had in the first half.

Gryphons 48-34 AMK CC
This was a match whereby we allowed to other team to score way too many 3 pointers. We failed to work as a team to defend the three pointers, allowing the team to hit 5 throughout the match. What was disappointing was that many of these 3s were from the top of the key or just 1 pass away, and yet we failed to stop them. We managed to run our plays that we had practised, but only once or twice. We never really pulled away in this match, but it was great that we managed to pull through for a win that'll take us to the next round.

Team list for U14 AND1 tournament

Thursday (November 19)

- Nicholas Lim

- Hao Yu

- Edward Kim

- Kevin Khoo

- Edison Low

- Shing Liang

- Chun Cheong

- Mark Khoo

- Bao Kun

- Wee Xuan

- Jack

- Ming jun

Friday(November 20th)

- Wee Xuan

- Seah Nguan

- Ming Jun

- Zong Tai

- Daryl

- Jing hui

- Chun Cheong

- Mark Khoo

- Bao Kun

- Jack

- Yao Zhong

Saturday/Sunday (November 21st/22nd)

- Seah Nguan

- Ming Jun

- Zong Tai

- Daryl

- Jing Hui

- Chun Cheong

- Mark Khoo

- Bao Kun

- Wee Xuan

- Yao Zhong

- Nicholas Lim

Changes may be made, this is just the first draft.

Milo U15 Youth Cup

Gryphons has cleared the 1st round of the Milo Youth Cup. The groups for the 2nd round are as follows:


Group W: Catholic High, Siglap Youth, Jurong Sec, Home United
Group X: T-Net (White), Minyi Youth, Chong Ghee, Minyi Chang Zheng
Group Y: Tagawa (White), HCI, T-Net (Red), Gryphons
Group Z: Whye Name (Red), Tagawa (Blue), Whye Nam (White), Christchurch


Fixtures
30 Nov 1510hrs: Tagawa (White) vs Gryphons
1 Dec 1230hrs: Gryphons vs HCI
3 Dec 1630hrs: T-Net (Red) vs Gryphons

Schedule for U14 AND1 Tournament

Wed 18/11 1715hrs - RI vs Unity
Thur 19/11 1600hrs - Springfield vs RI
Fri 20/11 1830hrs - Jurong Sec vs RI
Sat 21/11 1600hrs - Clementi Town vs RI
Sun 22/11 1840hrs - RI vs Paya Lebar CSC
Thur 26/11 1715hrs - Deyi vs RI
Sat 28/11 1600hrs - Ahmad Ibrahim vs RI
Sat 12/12 1600hrs - Eastview vs RI


We wear white jerseys if listed first, dark coloured jerseys if listed next.


There will only be one training session this week (Monday) - Conditioning & Briefing
Tuesday session will be postponed in view of tournament schedule