U16 ISIBL RI 32 vs 35 AISS

(Unable to vote for AISS mvps as I do not have the scoresheet.)

The match was played at AISS today at 5:15pm.

This is one of our poorest match so far in the ISIBL U-16.

In the first quarter, we started off rather poorly, trailing by a few points when the game started. We were rushing our plays and the movements were rusty, always getting off bad shots and looks. As some people were fooling around earlier, our man-to-man defense was poor; we did not pressure our man, always defending them after they get the ball and not helping, which gave them easy shots with their dominant size. Offense, we were poor and missing easy baskets on breakaways.

Second quarter, we went on a roll. Our defense started to work and we were giving the AISS players trouble, communicating on screens, taking out the triple threats and every time a shot was fired, the post boxed out, rebounded and 0utlet to the point guard. Bao Kun and Wee Xuan both got a block each which stopped the AISS players attempts to score, and mark was converting all his fastbreak lay ups, including a foul in! We were doing so well, that we caught up from down by 3 to almost up by ten!

Yet, in the third quarter, our momentum seemed to disappear as soon as it came. Our defense started to loosen up, we stopped running the fast breaks and we let loose many shots, many of those which included our opponents out of angle running shots. By the end of the third quarter, our lead was reduced to 4 points. The last quarter, our fatigue started to show by committing silly mistakes such as passing near the receiver's legs, letting the opponents to score over us and we on the other hand, couldn’t convert our fastbreaks and our shots. At 3:30 minutes, we lost our hard-earned lead and were trailing by 1. Coach called a timeout and we decided to give one last push of our full court trap. However, we were not trapping nor pressuring our opponents and we even let them get another basket. At the last two minutes, we were still trailing by 3 points . Even when we still have chance to win the game, we gave a very "spiritless" fight, not denying our man after the point guard killed his dribble, not fighting for lose balls and letting them get rebounds and using up the remaining clock time, which explained for the 3 point deficit.

Dream.Team.Fight.Win. The motto of our CCA is not some clichéd words to make it sound nice, there is a deep meaning behind that. If we don’t have the determination to keep fighting despite the scoreline, we will never win a game. We are Raffles Basketball Team. Coach told us since day 1 that Raffles Basketball team never gives up, because that's our legacy, putting all our effort and last ounce of energy into the game and achieving the impossible despite the odds against us. We always fight hard and never stop fighting till the last second, but I guess we didn't implement today and let complacency get the better of us. We had no determination for today's match to FIGHT BACK and I think we should never repeat this lacklustre performance we gave today.

MVPs:

RI:

Mark Khoo

AISS:

No. 26

No. 34

U19 ISIBL North Vista 81-54 RI

After a horrible performance last Tuesday, our boys look forward to making it up for this match. Yet, things didn't go as planned.

Things were wrong right from the start, where we had poor plays which included our center not being active in the play, and we had scrappy offense there after. Fortunately, Jordaan hit the first three of the game and we got our momentum, making a few shots from the high post during plays, a few fast break points, but that's about it. Like in previous matches, we fired three pointers at will, most of the time it missed and were not rebounded. We led by 1 during the buzzer.

Second quarter, we were still maintaining the level of intensity as the first quarter. Joel kept us in the game after firing a three when NV got a good start in the second quarter, and two subsequent ones later. However, that was only Joel, and the other forwards were cold on the floor, firing a few airballs. Nearing the end of the quarter, we gave up quite a few fast break points and we allowed them to sink the buzzer beater, which gave them the lead of 8 by the first half ended.

The third half was a disaster.

Lousy plays, bad passes and decision making for shots, spacing and not even having the heart to get back on defense. We were destroyed by their fast breaking, mainly from their number 7 and their lanky number 10. In that quarter alone, we were outscored 23-4, outscored by a shocking 19 points. During that time, we were shouting at one other for making mistakes, not following plays made by our coach, everything you could think of that would lower our morale and spirit.

Fourth quarter however, we went all out on a 3-22, making a few key steals and making our lay ups, until we made a foul and we stopped. North Vista quickly pulled back two of their starters into the game and the game ended with a thrashing 81-54 scoreline.

Throughout the game, we were passive on the boards and not aggressive with rebounds. We also had scrappy plays that would have murdered us if it wasn't for the individual skills of the team. Basketball is a team sport. There is no way you can win it by yourself, you have to work together as a team; choosing the right times to shoot, communicating on defense(saying help only if you mean it), rebouding hard by boxing out your man, etc. That is why we love basketball so much, it is not an individual sport but one that relies on all 5 guys giving all out on the court and 7 guys cheering and encouraging the team from the bench, and when we win, we don't win alone. We WIN as a team and LOSE as a team, we share joy and pain. We work together and share the results together, because we know our teammates are always there for each other. Take this loss, learn from it, and let's perform better next match.

MVPs:

North Vista:

Larry

Kian Hao

RI:

Bryan

U19 ISIBL RI 33-14 WRS

We started off really strong and well, with jordaan converting his two free throws after a hard foul. However, we had a little problem communicating on defense when WRS did a play which involved two of their posts screening the point guard at the same time. Fortunately, they did not manage to convert any of their plays and their only point came from a fast break from their no. 4. The second quarter was played the same intensity, though the scoring was much less reduced after WRS adjusted to the pace of the game. However, perhaps it was our homground, Jordaan hit his jumper and lawrence converted his free throw, and Alex scored his first shot of the game.

The second half however, when the opponent decided to press, we had some difficulties adjusting; we had a few turnovers from a few bad passes and decision making. We weren't finishing well when we got to the botttom of the rim, and we did not run our press breaker smoothly. To make it worse, we were outscored 4-5. Last quarter though, we slowly got used to the pace of the game, and we pulled apart 9-3, ending the game 33-14.

Our fast breaking and plays percentages are as high as our 3 pointers, which is unacceptable. We have to be better in our finishing and run plays more smoothly, in order to do better for the matches ahead.

MVPs:

RI:

Jordaan

Brendan Sim

WRS:

De Jin

U19 ISIBL UWC 45 - 38 RI

The match was played immediately after the U16 one.

(As I was not watching the match entirely, pardon for the lack of information.)

Compared to the previous game, we started off better than the previous. We grabbed the rebounds after their missed attempts and we box out hard. However, probably due to the fact that we were impatient, we fired three pointers at will, and only one was made throughout the entire first quarter. Second quarter, coach substituted the wings, though the wings had to make a few mistakes in order to get their momentum going, before we saw a nice breakway lay up by Daniel and a beautiful three by Alex. We ended 21-15.

Third quarter, we hit three three pointers and we went off for a full court zone press that failed as many times it succeeded. We did not intercept after trapping, which defeated the purpose of the trap. Fourth quarter we were still unable to catch up, though we hit two three pointers from jordaan and joel, and ended 45-38.

Throughout the match, we were not aggressive with our rebounding, always not boxing out fully and jumping with the guys much taller than us. We also did not treasure our ball possessions, like playing with the ball at half court doing fancy moves and firing shots that were ill-advised and challenged, when we know we can get better looks than that. Patience goes a long way in basketball, and we should know how to use that.

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.

RI 61-22 Woodlands Ring Secondary

We finally won.

Perhaps it was our home ground, or because our B div seniors were supporting us, or maybe because they didn't have many tall players, but we finally won.

We started off with a bang, with Alex and Chun Cheong scoring a couple of strong lay ups which gave us the early lead. Our taller post players intimidated the opposition and we played good defense, ending the early score in 17-10. The next quarter, coach rotated the bench a little and we extended our scoreline to 32. However, we still made silly mistakes, like not boxing out, hence allowing the shorter guards and wings to grab the rebounds over and over again. However, we performed well with a few fast breaks and ended the score 61-22.

In our debrief, Alex reminded us that even though we have won, our mistakes still cost us quite a number of points. We identified them and decided to from now on everyone give their 100% during training and 110% during training.

(Quote: Like is just like a basketball game, cherish ever second you're on the court because you never know when you're going to get benched.)

MVPs:
Ri:
Alexander Loh

WRSS:
Jonathan
Zheng Yu

RI 51-52 AISS

The match was held today at 4.45pm, in the indoor courts of Australian International School.

Before the match, we had a team talk. 6 of us wanted to talk, 3 wanted to box out while the most of us wanted to play like a team and all of us wanted to make our underbaskets and lay ups.

We didn't.

Playing the match without Chng, we started off, determined to play our best. We started off with a 3-2 zone before changing to a 1-11, ending the first quarter 13-4. However, in the second quarter we couldn't keep up the level of focus and had many missed lay ups, ending 28-19.

In the starting of the second half, one of our key post players fouled out. We remained intensity and third quarter ended with 40-34. The last quarter, two of our key players fouled out. With one player injured and three fouled out, things were looking bad for us. However, good defense and poor offense plays from them drew the scoreline 48-48 after alex scored a three. We then switched to a full court press but due to a player's nervousness we commited to fouls, and AIS scored 4 free throws in a row. With a few seconds left on the clock, coach planned a last minute second play and Alex scored a buzzer beater three, concluding the game 51-52.

Throughout the game, we identified several mistakes that we were making and suffered from them. Today's match is not a loss for us, but as a rude awakening.

Points:
- Free throws
- Making lay ups properly
-Boxing out

MVPs: RI
-Alexander Loh

AISS
-Thomas Andersen
-Max Kadarusman

ISIBL: U14 Schedule

Our C Div 2009 team starts their pre-season with the International School League.

UWC (A)

• 2^nd Feb (Mon) @ UWC 4:30pm
  

Cat High

• 11^th Feb (Wed) @ Cat High 4:30pm
  

Singapore American School

• 26^th Feb (Thu) @ SAS 4pm
  

Australia International School ‘A’

• 5^th March (Thu) @ AIS 4:45pm
  

ISIBL U14 Finals

• 14^th Mar (Sat) @ AIS 1pm – 5pm