ISIBL U16 RI 44-31 United World College

Today starts of the day of our U16 ISIBL tournament!

After coming in and warming up, we readied for a physical game and coach went through our plays before emphasizing the importance of defense again, and putting in the sec 2s to start the tournament.

Our offense sparked off right from the very start, where Mark knocked down a three in our very first play. We played aggressively from defense and gave UWC a hard time. On the offensive end, we were flowing from beyond the arc. With the combined efforts of Mark, Chun Cheong and Bao Kun, we had 5 threes already in the very first quarter! We pulled ahead quickly and furiously and ended 8-18, with Bao Kun sealing his free throw after a nasty foul. However, our full-court trap failed as we let one of their players have an attempt to go for the layup with 3 seconds left on the clock.

In the second and third quarter , we rotated more of the team into play. However, not only did we let them grab the rebounds over our heads, there were some long rebounds that we could have taken and we allowed the UWC players to hustle and throw it back into the court to continue running their plays. On defense however, Yao Zhong and Bao Kun did us proud by constantly harassing the UWC point guards, coming up with about 3 steals and always deflecting the ball and upsetting the UWC play. Unfortunately, we slowed down on the offensive end and rushed more and more into our attack, spamming incessantly and unnecessarily.

The last quarter, we calmed down and executed more and more. There were times where we could have done better but it was still okay.

Today for the first game of the tournament, most of us sec 3s were out of competitive basketball for too long and we did not take enough shots and/or set ourselves up properly. As seniors of the team we have to contribute more on that. On defense, today we learnt that 2 seconds of lethargy can ruin a whole near 24 seconds worth of defensive efforts, so BOX OUT, hustle for those loose balls, and we can move on to offense because rebounds win championships.

(RI):

Bao Kun

Yao Zhong

(UWC):

no. 18