RI 54- 63 Unity Secondary School

(the report was done without the scoresheet, and some information might be inaccurate.)

We already knew before the match, that this might very well be the last game of our C division season. We knew that B division was much tougher and we wanted to make sure we were cherishing this chance of a lifetime. With a win and a loss, we had to ensure a win in order to qualify. Either we will make it in as group champions or we would be eliminated. Unity's skill level is way above us, but we decided, we won't go don't without a fight.

The game plan was too deny Delvin Goh, their star 1.93m center and to keep him between the two free throw lines of the game. However, there were many stupid fouls and the first three points came from the free throws of the Unity players. With their big, imposing center on defense, our shots were knocked away by Delvin in the many attempts we tried to score. They got many easy baskets, though we got our fair share when we got our momentum going, with Alex making a couple of layups with Daniel. The first quarter ended 10-18.

The second quarter, we were still unable to catch and match up with our opponents. Joel scored 6 out of the 9 points we scored in that quarter, but our opponents edged ahead with 17 points in that quarter. Daniel also managed to tipped in an alley after a missed three point attempt. Even though we did a decent job denying and wearing Delvin out, we still did not box him out at the crucial moment when he entered the paint area, allowing him easy putbacks and rebounds. The third quarter, we seemed to be wearing down, and the superstar center sprinted past us after our opponents set a screen for him. We were missing many our rebounds, we were missing easy baskets, we had more of the stupiud fouls in the first quarter and it seemed like we were almost giving up, we ended the quarter 27-52. Down by 25 points, most teams would have given up by now.

But we didn't.

We fought back up, with our full court zone press and man to man, we caught off Unity by surprise. Many turnovers came about, and we were making layups, fastbreaking, hitting our three pointers, including Yves fadeaway hook shot from the free throw line! We fought our hearts out, we could feel our teammates supporting one another, we could see the fear in the Unity players eyes, and even Joel grabbed 3 offensive rebounds. Chng and Yves punished the Unity offense by grabbing the rebounds and outlet to the wings for fast break. Slowly, we chased from 25 points down to only 9 points down. But it was a little too late, for we got beaten by the clock, and the game ended 54-63.

And with that, that's the end of our C Division season! After all the blood, sweat, tears, sprains and injuries, it has all ended. From the time when we were selected to join Basketball, to the first friendly we ever played as a batch against Yishun to ISIBL, to south zone and finally, to the nationals, our team has matured a lot. From training under the blazing sun to running and gymming, this was the team that trained together for the past one and a half years. We won as a team and lost as a team, because no one gave up. We fought till the last second, we struck fear deep into the hearts of Unity. We won as a team, lost as a team. Tonight when we go to sleep, we wouldn't think about all the mistakes that we've made today or the past matches. Tonight we'll dream of all the achievements and victories our great team has achieved, because I don't want any of us to remember this season with all the pain and losses, I want us to remember this magical season as one that will live in my heart forever, that every time someone talks about it I'll be able to say: We're proud of our team, we love our teammates and that no one can ever change that.

RI BBALL C DIV'09

NATIONALS TOP 8
TEAMMATES FOREVER

Presbyterian High 45-49 RI

All of us knew that today's game was either win, or go home. At school, instead of our usual mental preparation, we gathered in a circle and we stressed to each other the importance of this match, though some people were still concerned about their personal affairs instead of the game.

Better prepared than Presbyterian High, we started off intensively with a 1-1-3, where we limited their superstar point guard Nethaniel from getting the ball many times. The second row also limited the high post and we disrupted their plays, giving them bad shots or low percentage ones. However, it wasn't good enough, and we ended with a slight lead of 15-16. The second quarter was a low scoring one. We totally denied Nethaniel and it became more of a 4-on-4 game, and we continued to outscore them 5-7. Third quarter, we managed to foul their key high post player out, and the game became easier for us, where we outscored them again 8-11. We ended the third quarter 27-33.

However, at the starting of the fourth quarter, we suddenly had so many turnovers that it should be illegal, resulting in easy lay ups for them. The zone press that we broke continuously for the past 3 quarters suddenly seemed to breaking US, and we even let them get the score even with us. There was one instance on defense, we played so badly, we let them grab the rebounds over and over again until they scored. Fortunately, we managed to pull a two point lead and we held onto the ball till the last second and Alex scored the last second layup, which ended the game 49-45.

Today's match, even though by score it's a victory for us, we did not win the game. Pres High lost the game. Just like the old boys said, in life you cannot be happy with small victories, because when you are contented with a small victory, you woul stop pushing yourself to be even better. You are your own worse critic, when you are the cream of the crop, you only can compare with yourself and no one else, and that's the only way for yourself to improve. Good job everyone, and now let's get our mind set for the Friday's game.

RI BBALL C DIV' 09

No one breaks the team except ourselves

RI 47-61 Jurong Secondary School

Coach said if we managed to get 60% of the rebounds today, we would win the match.

Today was the start of our the second round, and it was evident that we were much less prepared compared to Jurong, which was obvious from the start.

The start of the match was terrible. We let in many many points, most of them fast break lay ups, or uncontested shots which kept flowing. After letting in many shots, we changed from 1-1-3 to a 3-2, which we managed to fight back a little, but still unable to get back our momentum, and we ended 10-22.

We started off the second quarter much better than the first, and we went to a full court trap, forcing many turnovers and performing well. However, we were still unable to catch up, and we were letting in too many shots that should be contested, including two three pointers. However, we still outscored them 17-14. The third quarter, we repeated what we've done in the second quarter, and we outscored them 11-8.

The last quarter, however, we seemed to have lost heart, not trapping on the full court trap, not even bothering to contest their shots. We missed easy lay ups and underbaskets even against guys who had 4 fouls. Because of that, we were down from 6 to down by 14, and the game ended 47-61. Probably the two good things that came out of this was that we got at least 55% of the rebounds, and that we got them into foul trouble since the first quarter. However, we lacked that 5% to make it a win, and once again, too many turnovers.

This is our first loss ever in a season, and hopefully our LAST lost this season. Tomorrow we will be playing against Presbyterian High, where it's a break or make match. If you have a winner's mentality, think about what mistakes you made and how NOT TO REPEAT THEM. Take it easy, breathe in and stop thinking about today's game, think of how much better you'll perform tomorrow and how you'll make up for your lack of effort in tomorrow's game.

RI BBALL C DIV' 09

It ain't over till the fat lady sings

Nationals Second Round Fixtures

Looks like the second round just got fiercer.

RI vs Jurong 28/7/09 1.30pm

RI vs Pres High 29/7/09 2.45pm

RI vs Unity 31/7/09 4pm

Venue: Clementi Indoor Stadium

The matches will just be as hard, or even harder, than the first. With three zone champions in the same group, we will fight to the last second, no matter what the scores turn out to be.

RI 48-42 Christchurch

Before today's match, Jaycen reminded us that all four teams in our group has a chance of qualifying for the second round. Mentally ready, coach explained to us what were their weaknesses and our game plan, which was to secure the rebounds and run fast break, and play a box and 1 to total deny their star offensive player number 11.

Playing without our captain, we had a fairly bad start, trailing 5-12 at the start of the first quarter, and the rather fresh no. 11 was making strong and fast cuts through, getting the ball a number of times. We ran into a little foul trouble at the start, with a number of us getting a few fouls early.

Second quarter we fought back, securing rebounds and came to a close fight of 18-19 by the second half. We switched players on number 11, and he only scored 2 points throughout the entire quarter and tiring out. However, we were unable to draw fouls from many times we tried to finish under the basket, and missed a few shots. The third quarter, we ran the fast break many many times, scoring 17-7, with strong drives from a few plays and finishing. We pulled apart to a point lead, 35-26.

However, we performed super badly for the fourth quarter. We were rushing too much on our fast breaks and had bad finishing. We also almost went back to doing the risky passes that almost killed us in the Ngee Ann game. The last few minutes Christchurch hit a couple of free throws to bring the lead to only 6 points, ending the game 48-42.

And that concludes the risky first round! After many scares and hard fighting, we advanced to the second round as group champions. Come back for training tomorrow and we're ready to take on the second round, where the matches will be much fiercer and tougher, and we will just have to be ready for it when the time comes.

RI BBALL C DIV'09

Rebounds win championships!

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

Nationals Group Fixtures

Finally, the first round of nationals has arrived.

Here are our groupings:

RI - HCI 2.45pm, 17/7/09
Ngee Ann - RI 1.30pm, 22/7/09
RI - Christchurch, 24/7/09

All matches will be played at Clementi Indoor Stadium.

Come watch the boys in action!

C Div South Zone Finals: RI vs Catholic High

C Div Nationals 2009: Groupings

The competition period will be from 13 July (Mon) to 4 Aug (Tue)

BOYS
Group A: Unity Sec, Catholic High, North Vista, Dunman High
Group B: Dunman Sec, Jurong, Peirce, Deyi
Group C: Presbyterian High, Anglican High, New Town, Guangyang
Group D: Raffles Institution, Christ Church, Ngee Ann, Hwa Chong

GIRLS
Group A: Unity Sec, Zhong Hwa, Dunman High, Deyi
Group B: Compassvale Sec, Jurong, Singapore Chinese Girls’, Manjusri
Group C: Anglican High, Christ Church, Nanyang Girls’, Cedar Girls’
Group D: Raffles Girls’, Dunman Sec, Yishun Town, Jurong West

RI 66-47 CHS

It seemed almost like a dream. Barely a year and a half ago we were still innocent secondary ones who joined RI basketball like as though it was just another CCA. At the end of last year, we're the only batch that doesn't have each other contacts and emails.

But look at us now.

It seemed that after so much blood, sweat and tears, but mostly blood, we're finally here at Delta Sports Hall, getting ready to play arch rivals Catholic High. We warmed up and mental prepped well, settled our minds down despite the large number of Raffles supporters cheering extremely loudly. At the start, we killed them off with our disciplined zonal defense that led to many fast breaks from our wings, allowing only one three point from their point guard Aaron. However, probably the pressure of the supporters was taking its toll on us we let cat high fight it's way up and we led by a precarious 3 point lead. The second quarter we kept our fight up, and every time we scored the roar of the crowd kept us motivated to try our best.

Yet, the third quarter somehow every chance we had on offense was a turnover and we were almost unrecongnisable. We let them claw their way back into the game as we missed easy lay ups and they even draw us 43-43 at the end of the third quarter. However, there was an injury by Cat High's number 15 center Jerome Tan and it halted the game for quite a while. The last quarter, we went on a scoring spree, rebouding all their shots and fast breaking, outscoring them 20-4. And with that, the scoreline came to a 66-47 close.

And that concludes the c div south zone campaign for 2009! Our hardwork, all the pain we've put in during training and gym sessions finally paid off to enjoy the fruits of our labour. The team would like to thank all the old boys who came down to support us, the school supporters, who cheered and screamed their lungs out for us, whether it's a made basket, turnover or a block. Kudos to Catholic High for putting up such a strong fight too, and at this point I would like to wish Jerome Tan a speedy recovery. To the players, the first half of our journey is complete, and the second half of the road to nationals would be a much tougher one. Rest well, recover from any injuries or sickness you're suffering from, and lets strive to do our best for nationals.

RI BBALL C DIV '09
Champions of the South (:

2009 South Zone C Div Finals: RI vs Catholic High

RI 66-53 Pierce

They say semi-finals is the most important match, because it decides either we move on to the finals or the 3rd or 4th placing. We played this without our captain, and we all were ready to step up to make up for his absence.

We started the first quarter relatively well, holding our defense until their 24 second attacking time was gone. We also broke their press the first time they've tried it and Pierce was discouraged from pressing. In the second quarter, we played phenomenally, engaging fast breaks and limiting them to just 9 points, though we did foul a little too much and allowed them to hit 5 free throws in a row.

In the second half, our play deteriorated as we didn't do our defense as discipline as the first half, and we allowed them to just shoot threes without contesting it much and allowed them to drive multiple times. The fourth quarter we played so badly that we let them outscore us 10-13, which we definitely cannot afford on Wednesday's game.

With that, we're on to the south zone finals! Thanks to all the old boys who came down to support us and b division too, as well as the secondary ones and the secondary twos. On Wednesday the finals will be held at Delta Sports Hall at 3pm, where we will be fighting for our lives and showing the fighting spirit of Raffles Basketball. To the players, when you think you're alone, look around around and you see 4 other guys with you. When you play alone you are alone. When you play as a team it would be as though there's a sixth man on the court helping you. The team will play with the spirit of every Rafflesian that will be there, and we will not disappoint.

Ribball C div '09
The final sprint.

RI 67-26 St Andrews

Knowing that we were already going to top the group despite the outcome of this match, we all still wanted to do our best for this match and practice a few things coach has made us practice in the past few trainings, despite missing two players.

But something was wrong.

Maybe it was because we have defeated Catholic High a few days ago, our intensity and seemed to drop, where we slowed down our pace a little throughout the entire match. We started off with a 3-2 zone, where we did not perform it as discipline as it should have been, and we only got our momentum soon later. However, the opponent opened the scoring when one of our inside players was hit accidentally by one of the St Andrew players and dropped the ball. Nevertheless, our good defense resulted in the 18-4 scoreline in the first quarter.

The second quarter and third quarter was where everything went wrong, We went for a box and 1 defense before a full court press, yet our intensity seemed to lower a lot. Another inside player was also injured at this time too during box and 1. The 1 in the defense did not play well and we often fell for the taunts of their no. 8. Third quarter we under performed, playing bad defense and not treasuring all our offense opportunities, which trailed 10-5 for us.

Fourth quarter we collapsed to a 1-1-3, though we let loose many open shots at first due to communication problems. However, the opponent always forgot the man at the back and that initiated many fast breaks, though not everytime the last man scored. In the final minutes we practiced 2-2-1 and we forced a few turnovers, though it broke as many times as it succeeded. In that quarter alone we scored 25-11.

With today's match, our second round is over.Today's match identified our shaky foundation of a few basics and a few players' fitness levels. The next match would be the semi finals and the finals on Wednesday, where we cannot afford the lethargic performance we put up today.

Ribball C div '09
A 110% in games.

RI 70-67 CHS

A few months ago, on the 11th of February, 4.30pm at Catholic High School, our C division lost to CHS by a extremely large margin of 20-30 points.

Was history about to repeat itself? Were we going to suffer the same fate? Before the match, our friends and classmates all believed that we would lose to Cat high, and some of us ourselves were unconfident, and a loss would be inevitable.

However, this time, it's not our loss.

We started off ferociously, not giving them any open shots with our disciplined and tight defense, and we lead 12-0 for the first quarter, before they got some lucky shots and a few free throws, though we ended first quarter with a 12 point lead of 22-10.

Maybe it's because of complacency of fatigue, the second and third quarter was a disaster, we let loose many open shots and they outscored us, 14-17 and 12-18 respectively in the second and third quarter. We let up on defense, we made many mispasses and instead of finishing it ourselves we always passed out that led to almost ten turnovers. Fourth quarter, as coach only played a few number of players, the players were getting lethargic and fortunately because of our early first quarter lead it went into overtime.

In overtime, we fought our hearts out. Even though we still made numerous mistakes, we still managed to outscore them by three points, and thus ending the game with the slim three point lead.

It was a good job, done by all the players, even those who didn't play. We played our hearts out, cheered our hearts out, and finally won. We won because we never gave up, and today's match pushed our boundaries. Had we made less mistakes, the scoreline would have been larger and more impressive. Good job to all the players playing out there today, especially yao zhong, who scored 11 points in the short time he played and not making any turnovers. Kudos to Daniel too for his game high 21 points, and Chng for his good post plays and milking.

We promised, we dreamed, we believe and fought, and now we have won. As I said before, past matches does not matter. We lost by about 33 points last time, and now everything is different. We promise to not get complacent and continue to do our best in every match, playing the matches as though it were our last. To the players, well done, have a rest and recover from any injuries you may have sustained, and let's get ready for St Andrews on Friday.

Ribball C div '09
Winning as a team.

A few words before the Catholic High match...

Hey C division '09 boys, after talking with Alex, here are a few words before the big match on monday.

Our season has been a clean loss record so far, it's a good effort done out by everyone and I believe everyone intends to keep it that way for our season. However, this DOES NOT give allow any of us to be complacent or overconfident. Every match, every point, every detail that we play will affect us for the rest of the season.

Catholic high has beaten us twice, once in a friendly last year, and once this year in ISIBL. IT DOES NOT MATTER. Remember when we were playing against them in ISIBL, at the starting of the game? We were leading them by 4-6 points before our inexperience and weaknesses caught up with us. This shows that the past matches does not matter, like i've said before, every game we go in is a new and clean one. No extra fouls, no extra time or points. The only thing that you may bring in with you to the next game is the FEAR of losing to them again. We wouldn't want that would we?

Don't be anxious, don't think they're always better than us. We are good in some stuff that they are not. We know a few tricks that they don't. Worshipping or fear of them is cowardice, and it shows how LITTLE CONFIDENCE you have about yourself. We have improved since the last time we saw them, we're faster, stronger, and better than we last were. If you can't overcome this psychological barrier within yourselves, you're not hundred percent ready to play the match on Monday.

Now, for the match itself, if you're out there fighting for our lives, remember to die for each other out there. Play defense like the way we should have: talking, communicating, helping at the right times, not going for the steal unless coach told us too, not giving up after the man drives past you. On OFFENSE, shoot when you're open, drive if you can, but have a plan 2 in your head if you cant finish it. Set good picks, bao wo shots and underbaskets. Intercept, saving ball if it goes out, when the ball moves drop down, etc. Another point, KEEP YOUR EYES ON THE BALL AT ALL TIMES.

If you're not playing, echo the defense. Tell them if they make mistakes, do not tell them what to do on offense because the person may be ready to drive or post up or shoot but if you tell them what to do, it would mess up their thinking. Cheer everytime we score, it boosts our team morale, it demoralises the other teams too.

Rest well over the weekend, and according to Alex on Friday, please eat well. Recover and don't fool around, especially any activities that could sprain your ankle or injure you in any way possible. Prepare well for monday, believe we WILL win, and the odds won't be against us.

DREAM.TEAM.FIGHT.WIN
RI BBALL C DIV '09 FOR THE SOUTH ZONE TITLE.

GESS 41-69 RI

The toughest match we had in our zones so far.

We were intent on stopping their number point guard number 7 and their winger number 9 from attacking right from the start, and we managed to stop them from getting any good shots in the first quarter, which ended 15-0. Yet, the second quarter, perhaps it's because we had matches and training all week, our intensity dropped a lot, allowing them layups and easy points. Same goes for the third quarter, where we seemed to run out of steam and allow the opponent to get many loose balls.

However, we upped the intensity in the fourth quarter, where everyone talked and help a lot at first, until the opponent manage to get many foul-ins and we stopped talking and communicating, though at the last second we saw a beautiful buzzer beater jumper from Yao Zhong and ended the game 41-69.

Our lack of communication and fitness was the key thing that gave away the opponent so many points, and we need to step up on defense and fighting spirit, especially on the big match against catholic high next Monday. For the players, rest well over the weekend, eat well, sleep well, and prepare yourself.

Ribball C div '09
Offense entertains, defense win games and rebounds win championships!

HIH 26-99 RI

The inflated scoreline doesn't mean anything about the match.

We started off shakily and precariously, sometimes making a few errors here and there. We were intent on stopping their fast wing players, though when we failed we made up by placing our posts in the zone, stopping them and making them force their shots. The second quarter and third quarter, the speed and intensity of our play was kept, and we broke their press play which led to easy baskets. However, we did not bao wo all our shots and we missed a couple of underbaskets, which at this stage of the competition should not happen.

Fourth quarter, we collapsed to a 1-1-3 and played it well, making turnovers and fast breaking a lot, which resulted in the 26-99 deficit.

On the court, when the opponent gets a steal and engages a fast break, rush back on defense, don't think "oh no, they're going to score one basket anyway, i'l just get ready for offense then." Basketball is a TEAM sport, if you're unwilling to WORK as a team, we will never WIN as a team.

Raffles Basketball FTW!
Never give up

C Division 2009 South Zone Round 2

(South Zone Round 2)
Venue: CCAB. Finals at Delta Sports Complex.

15th April 1145 hours- Holy Innocents vs RI
17th April 1145 hours- Gan Eng Seng vs RI
20th April 1300 hours- RI vs Catholic High
24th April 1145 hours- St Andrews vs RI

A relatively hard road in front of us, especially the Catholic High match.

For anyone who has time, please go down and support the team!

We will not falter.

RI 104-16 ACS(I)

We knew we qualified for the second round already, and we mental prepped properly before the game, though there were some people fooling around. We went into the game prepared, and went off with a roaring start!

The first quarter, everyone was doing their job well, rebounding and outlet passes to the wings for good finishes, though once or twice in a while one of us would lose our man and let some easy shots. We made up for this with good rebounding and in the first quarter alone, the score 35-0.

In the second quarter, we changed our play a little and due to miscommunication, our opposition scored 6 points in a inside game, when the posts went out to cover for the wings, acs i wings fed down to the low post and finished, explaining for the 6 points scored. Third quarter, we did not help on defense, though on offense we ran many fast breaks and scored 22 points.

Fourth quarter, coach subbed the entire team out and 5 people went to play a defense we never played before. The defense gave many turnovers and in a short span of 2-3 minutes we ran 6 fast breaks, with daniel scoring a buzzer beater jump shot from the free throw line. The game ended 104 to 16 in our favour. Kudos to Alex's game high 26 points too.

With that, this concludes our first round. The second groupings are already out, and we have two other group champions in our grouping. We'll just have to train harder, and be back, stronger, faster, better than before.

Raffles Basketball FTW!
We could, we can, and we will.

RI 62-39 Pierce

Our toughest opponent in our first round was not to be taken lightly, but out mental preparation before the game was bad, and playing without our main point guard only made it worse.

Alex opened the scoring with a free throw, and everything was intense in the first quarter. Pierce changed their defensive strategy and it took us sometime to get adjusted to it, and only a couple of baskets in the last two minutes helped us lead at 12-6. In the meantime, chng had also gotten two fouls early.

The second quarter though, our scoring increase with a couple of good plays and drives in a half court offense, though our defense we were still not doing as well. We did not box out, we did not communicate effectively in the zone defense and we allowed them to drive and score some layups that just keep going in despite the angles. Third quarter things were even tighter, and things were not good for us, key players no 9 and no 10 were making good and fast drives.

In the fourth quarter, it was a totally different story. We started to communicate on defense, we were getting our momentum back and we launched a flurry of baskets and played much better. In the end, the game ended 62-39.

A victory against our strongest opponent in our first round exposed several mistakes and our lack of inexperience, time is short, and the teams are merciless. Everyone has to be prepared to play full-game and give a 110% focus and concentration into the matches.

Raffles Basketball FTW!
INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE does not come before TEAM PERFORMANCE.