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!