C Division Nationals Round 1 Game 1

Raffles Institution vs Anglican High School (54-55)

Points by Quarter:

1st-----2nd-----3rd-----4th

9--------11-------8------26------- Raffles Institution

20--------8-------17-----10------- Anglican High

In this game against Anglican High, we got off to a rough start, trailing double digits by the end of the first quarter. This carried on throughout the 2nd and 3rd quarters as we were unable to find any rhythm, and they pulled the gap open to a 17 point lead by entering into the 4th quarter. Just as everyone thought that all hope was lost, RI went on a furious rally, and by the 2 minute mark in the 4th, took the lead for the first time all game. This was followed by a back and forth one and a half minutes where we traded baskets, eventually ending up in RI leading by 1 with 10 seconds left in the game. After getting the rebound, the ball was fired up to their key player #8 and he dribbled down the court and shot a floater over 3 of our defenders in the lane. We watched as the ball was in the air and as the buzzer sounded, went off glass, rattled for a while in the rim and eventually went down. The basket was ruled good and they had won the game. It was definitely a heart breaking loss for us. One thing that we have to work on is our under baskets and our free throws. We missed at least 15 free throws as a team in the game and had we converted on them, we could have made a difference in the outcome of the game. There were also so many easy chances under the basket that we all were unable to convert. We really have to make sure we make our layups as chances like these are unable to come by. On the bright side however, we showed the true Rafflesian spirit as we fought back furiously from being down by 17 in the 4th quarter which was no easy task. This is definitely a credit to all our players as we all contributed in this rally and we showed what our team was really capable of. If we continue to play like this, it would definitely take a lot out of our opponents to take us down. It was definitely a disappointing end to what was an incredible rally, but we should be encouraged by this game and bring our best effort against Unity Secondary this coming Wednesday.