C Division South Zone Round 1 Game 3: Raffles Institution vs Guanyang Secondary School (23-40)

Raffles Institution vs Guanyang Secondary School (23-40)

 

Points by Quarter

 

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

RI:                           0              5            13              5 

GSS:                       3            16              8             13

 



The game started off with neither teams being able to attack well. Both teams did not manage to get their engine running as the point remained 0-0. Guanyang then grasped their chance well, scoring a three pointer after a minor mistake in our defence. The first quarter then ended with only a score line of 3-0.

Second quarter was where the onslaught began. Guanyang’s full court pressure was working out extremely well and many bad passes were made by our team. With each inbound we tried to make, Guanyang went up hard against us, forcing us to make many weak passes. The opponent then made lots of easy lay ups from these turnovers. We were managed to score a mere 5 points in the second quarter, compared to Guanyang’s 16 points. The problem continued on in the third quarter. But however, towards the end of the third quarter, energy started getting back to us as we picked up momentum, getting a 6-0 scoring streak, dragging the point difference to 9 points.

Unfortunately, the problem that we encountered previously came back haunting us in the fourth quarter. Most of the time, we were unable to bring the ball up to half court and when we did, all it took was an errant pass to get the ball on Guanyang’s possession. From these mistakes, Guanyang went on a 9-0 run, completely killing off our momentum from the previous quarter. Eventually, Guanyang emerged victors with a final score of 40-23.

Today’s game was very poorly played, this resulted us as 2^nd in our group. Guanyang was able to shut down our attempt to advance the ball with their full court pressure. This made our players panicked and not dare to offend, thus resulting in many weak passes and turnovers. Our offence was also extremely weak, with no one daring to go for the basket. Also we have lost this match; we would still be advancing into Round 2 as 2^nd in the group. Here’s our match ups for Round 2:

Fairfield Methodist School

Holy Innocents' High

Peicai Secondary School

Henderson Secondary School

Catholic High School

The challenging opponents we would be facing would be Fairfield and Catholic High. We understand that this would be hard for us, but we would not give up and cotinue to fight on. We already have nothing to lose and would fight hard for a spot for Top 4.

C Division South Zone Round 1 Game 2: Raffles Institution vs NJC (31-25)

Raffles Institution vs NJC (31-25) OT

The game started off with NJC winning the tip-off and making the first basket. The two teams started trading baskets with neither sides being able to pull away. Neither our defense nor offence was working out very well. This resulted in many turnovers being made by us while attacking. Once again, the same problem occurred in Game 1 happened with this game too: our 2-2-1 full court press. The opponent easily dribbled and passed past our defense and made several easy baskets, while our offence still did not work out. By the end of the 1^st half, we were only leading by a mere 5 points.

As the 2^nd half began, both teams were not making any baskets and the 3^rd quarter ended with us scoring only 1 point and NJC reducing the gap to only 3 points. This was caused by our poorly executed offence. We were not playing according to the plays. We were also not able to make many easy baskets. Overall, the whole offence was played in a very rush manner. Both teams made a lot of team fouls and we were awarded with a lot of free-throws. However, we were not able to grasp these chances and had low percentage foul shots.

As the fourth quarter began, NJC made a fierce retaliation, diving for every loose ball. The bad defense by us and a few easy drives by NJC were the only thing needed for them to tie us. With around 30 seconds ticking on the clock, and the scores tying at 23-23, we tried to make one last offence. However, this was proved futile as the last drive of the quarter made by us got rejected by the NJC post. Now with just around 2 seconds on the clock, NJC made a shot and the shot merely missed by inches, bouncing off the metal.  As the whistle marked the end of the 4^th quarter and the beginning of overtime, we knew it was either win or go home.

In the OT, we stopped our full court press and instead retreated back to playing 2-3 zone. We slowed down our offence pace and not long after, a basket was made by us and we were back in the lead. A few more interceptions and fast breaks increased our lead and we finished OT winning 8-2. The game concluded with the final score of 31-25.

This game was played rather poorly and a lot of improvements could be done. Our 2-2-1 full court pressure and defense needs a lot of adjustment. Another weak point of our team was our foul shots. We were granted a lot of free-throws in the game and our shot percentage was only around 50%. The next game against Guanyang will be at 11.10am, 8^th July at CCAB. It would definitely be a challenge to us but it is a must win game as the victory would give us a better chance of emerging into Top 4 from Round 2. 

Points by Quarter

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

RI:                   9               9               1             4              8

NJC:                8                5                3              7               2

C Division South Zone Round 1 Game 1: Raffles Institution vs Outram Secondary School (67-27)

Raffles Institution vs Outram Secondary School (67-27)

The game started off well with us driving in and attacking the basketball with ease. Our offense was working out smoothly with high percentage scores from the drives. However, our full court 2-2-1 pressure was not working as well as it was the first time that we were using it. Even though we made a few interceptions and steals, we had also allowed the opponent to break our defense and score quite a number of easy fast breaks. Also, a lot of fouls were made during the full court pressure and due to the high number of team fouls, the opponent team were awarded with several easy free-throws. Despite that, we had a steady lead of 14 points by the end of the 3^rd quarter.

It was the last quarter that some improvements were seen in our full court pressure. We made many excellent interceptions and efficient fast breaks, bringing up our lead to even more. Still, we still made several mistakes and allowed easy fast breaks by the opponent teams. The game concluded in us emerging as victors, winning by 40 points.

Overall, the main problem faced in this game was the full court pressure and the rebounds. We were very unfamiliar with the 2-2-1 pressure and made many unnecessary fouls in the process. Many of us also lacked the stamina to play 2-2-1 for 4 quarters, resulting in us not able to chase for every fast break. For the rebounds, we had neither a great number of defensive rebounds nor offensive rebounds. In order for improvements to be made, more effort must be put into the training, with us paying extra attention to the 2-2-1, stamina and the boxing out.

Though we had won this season opener game with a significant lead, we must not be complacent and must play well in the next two matches. It is a must for us to win the next two matches as emerging the top in Round 1 would make Round 2 easier for us, thus granting us a greater chance of advancing to Top 4. 

Points by Quarter

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

RI:             17             10            10            30

OSS:          7               9               7              4

B Division Nationals Round 2 Game 3: Raffles Institution vs ACS (Barker Road) (54-75)

Raffles Institution vs ACS (Barker Road) (54-75)


In a rematch of the South Zone finals, we faced ACS once again for the 3rd time this season. When the game started however, we were a mess offensively as we committed silly mistakes and turnovers that lead almost always to fast break opportunities for the opponents. This prevented us from scoring on one hand while allowing ACS to streak ahead to a blazing 20-3 lead at one point in the first quarter.

The second quarter began and we finally started hitting some of our outside shots and drives to the hoop. But ACS stepped up to the challenge and poured in points as well to match our scoring output, allowing them to nurse a 16 point lead still entering the halftime break.

However, our efforts were valiant as we were unable to close the gap effectively as it seemed like every time we got on a little of a run, ACS would respond with some timely baskets and stop the run. This allowed them to maintain a 15+ point lead throughout most of the game and eventually the game ended as we fell to ACS by a final margin of 21 points.

Although our season has ended, we still had a crazy run and had many valuable experiences together as a team. Throughout this season, bonds within the team has undoubtedly grown stronger and we have learnt to lean on one another in the good times and the bad. We worked hard throughout the journey, shedding blood sweat and tears on the court together and enjoyed the fruits of our labour. We would like to sincerely thank all the old boys that came down to support us and cheer us on, giving us their valuable guidance and advice. It really meant a lot to the whole team and we learnt a lot every time you guys talked to us before, after and during the game. We would not have achieved what we had achieved without the phenomenal job that our teachers in charge have done as well as the work that our coach, Coach Lim, had put in to making sure that the team had discipline and worked hard towards our goal. Alas, we conclude this incredible season with a South Zone gold medal and a top 8 placing in the Nationals...

B Division Nationals Round 2 game 2: Raffles Institution vs North Vista Secondary (42-64)

Raffles Institution vs North Vista Secondary (42-64)


Points by Quarter:

             1st-------2nd-------3rd-------4th
RI-------14--------8----------7--------13
NVS----18-------10---------12--------24


The game started off with both teams driving in and attacking the basket with much ease as we both ran our offense well, getting high percentage shots. We made use of our half court offense to get drives to the paint and one on one opportunities whereas North Vista had most of their points come off fastbreaks. It was more of the same in the 2nd quarter as we both continued to pour in points at a steady rate, neither side being able to pull away. After the first 20 mins, we were only down by 6 points.

However, it was the 3rd quarter once again which was our downfall as we started being extremely careless with the ball, turning it over at our own side of the court and giving them easy baskets as our defense could not run back in time. They also forced some of our turnovers by aggressively double teaming our players and covering passing lanes very well. This allowed them to outscore us by 5 points in the quarter and stretched their lead all the way to 11 points.

The onslaught continued as they also started crashing the offensive boards and getting many putbacks. These easy baskets allowed inside eventually blew the game wide open. While we did a good job protecting the 3 point line, making sure we limited the number of 3 point shots they made, we could not contain their drives as they were able to kick it out for 3 point shots immediately when their drives got covered. We had to pick our poison with their offense running like a well-oiled machine. Eventually their offense was too much for us to handle and they emerged victorious.

This loss has eliminated us from the Nationals for this year. However, we have not finished playing our games yet and will have a rematch once again against a familiar foe in ACS (Barker Road). Game will be played on thursday at 4pm as both us and ACS (Barker Road) have been eliminated from the Nationals with North Vista Secondary and Dunman Secondary proceeding on to the semi finals.

B Division Nationals Round 2 Game 1: Raffles Institution vs Dunman Secondary (46-64)

Raffles Institution vs Dunman Secondary (46-64)

Points by Quarter

          1st       2nd       3rd       4th
RI-----10-----17------10-----10
DSS---15------9------20-----20


The game started off with both teams trading baskets. We were able to control their halfcourt offense but had problems stopping their fastbreaks especially when we had committed a turnover or missed a shot. We also got strongly outrebounded by the opponents, who were very aggressive in crashing the offensive boards and this allowed them to get many many extra possessions. Despite this, we still held our ground and trailed only by 5 entering the 2nd.

The second quarter was when we got things going and found our rhythm as we boxed out the post players more effectively, while leaking out for fastbreaks and layups. The 3 point shot started falling for us as well and we caught up by the 4 minute mark of the 2nd quarter, eventually taking a 3 point lead into halftime as we lead 27-24.

However in the 2nd half, what caused us troubles in the 1st quarter came back to haunt us as we constantly gave up easy layups and failed to stop them from converting on their fastbreak attempts as they attacked the basket with much aggression. Their aggressiveness gave them many layups, drew fouls for them, and sometimes even got and ones. We were able to keep the gap and only trailed by 7 entering the 4th quarter, cutting it down to 4 at one point. However, we were unable to stop their fastbreak drives and missed some assignments in our rotations which left them open for layups. The game finally ended with us losing by 18, but it was definitely closer than the score shows.

With this loss, the next game against North Vista will be a must win in order to keep our hopes of entering the national semi finals alive. North Vista had just played their first game against ACS (Barker Road) today and came up victorious.

B Division Nationals Round 1 Game 3: Raffles Institution vs Anglican High (57-64)

Raffles Institution vs Anglican High (57-64)


Points by Quarter:

           1st       2nd       3rd       4th
RI-----22------14------11-----10
AHS---23------9-------14-----18


The game started off with both teams having no trouble finding the basket at all as each team got off to a blazing start. Defense may have been an issue as while we were getting to the basket often, we also allowed many 3-point shots to go in. Anglican High scored 4 three pointers in the quarter and this kept them in the game as we were unable to bother the shooter enough for him to miss. The talent of their star player #6 was also on full display as he scored 9 points in the first quarter alone and was a big reason for their scoring output. Despite that, we kept the gap close and after the first only were down by a point.

In the 2nd quarter, we turned decided to shut down #6 by putting our forwards Shiva and Ivan on him. They took turns to stick to him and harassed him for the rest of the game as he got frustrated and could not receive the ball on many occasions, much less score. This change in strategy contained him for the rest of the game as after scoring 9 points in the first quarter, he scored only two field goals for the rest of the game. This allowed us to take a 4 point lead by the end of the half.

In the 3rd quarter, Anglican High decided to turn to other scoring options with much success as their point guard #5 successfully created opportunities for his teammates and also carried some of the scoring load. The other portion of scoring was handled by #11 who drained 3 three pointers in the game and ended up scoring a total of 17 points. We did not do a good job defending him properly and preventing him from getting points in this game. This allowed them to chip into the lead, but we still lead by one entering into the 4th quarter.

The 4th was when the wheels fell off for us as we got to the rim on countless occasions but just barely missed the layups that we had inside. This caused a lot of wasted possessions in which we could have scored on and gave the opponents more confidence in themselves as they eventually took the lead with about 4 minutes left in the game. With Anglican up by 5, we fought back hard, giving them all we could and cut the lead to 2 at one point. The lead from then on fluctuated between 2 and 3 for several minutes. However, we were unable to score in the waning moments of the 4th when they were up by 5 and had to resort to playing the foul game. To their credit, they were able to make their free throws and hence sealed the game by a final score of 64-57.

Although we lost this game, we would be moving on to the second round of the nationals as both us and Anglican High have emerged top 2 in the group. The following schools were in our second round draw:

Dunman Secondary
North Vista Secondary
ACS (Barker Road)

Although the matchups may be tough, we understand that nothing will come easy in the second round of the nationals no matter who we would have drawn as we will be going up against the other 7 of the top 8 schools in the whole of Singapore, fighting for a top 4 spot. We will not give up and fight hard in every game that we play and this surely will be a great experience for all of us. Now, we have once again found ourselves as underdogs and have nothing to lose...