National Basketball League

Gryphons will be sending to team for this year's National Basketball League qualifying round 2008.

Team

Ong Swee Teck (Manager)

Poh Yeang Cherng (Player/Coach)

Post

1. Low Jia Ren (Captain)
2. Simon Quek
3. Warren Mah
4. Jermaine Loy

Forwards

1. Du Zi Chao
2. Wang Jia Cheng
3. Simon Ong
4. John Koh
5. Dennis Chee Kwang How

Guards

1. Gabriel Pang
2. Danny Chua
3. Chey Zheng Feng
4. Wang Ding Yuan
5. Tan Siak San

Fixtures

20-Sep-08 Sat 7.00pm E Jwoods Sports World vs Gryphons @KMRT
21-Sep-08 Sun 7.00pm E Gryphons vs Kangaroos @KMRT
24-Sep-08 Wed 8.30pm E UWA vs Gryphons @KMRT
26-Sep-08 Fri 8.30pm E Gryphons vs Pirates Basketball Club @KMRT
28-Sep-08 Sun 5.30pm E Chong Ghee vs Gryphons @SBC1

• KMRT - Kembangan MRT
• SBC - Singapore Basketball Centre
  

Report

We ended the NBL campaign 1-4. Despite the elimination, this is a very positive tournament on a few fronts:

1. We managed to get a team together consisting of young and old (from 16 to 47 years old)
   
2. The Blues 97 joined us for the 1st time
   
3. Effort did not end with NBL (like in the past) but rather continued with regular sparring sessions with RJC boys on Thursday evenings. 
   

This is the start of good things and not the end of an effort.

We lost because:

1. We could not get enough guys for the matches - had to go with 6 guys for 1 match, and JR could only play 2 games. Add to that the financial crisis and work commitments took out a few more guys.
   
2. Not enough understanding forged wiht the few training sessions we had.
   

U-14 Nationals RI 59-54 Jurong Secondary

It is said that the 3rd 4th placing match is one of the hardest match for players to find motivation for, but still we found motivation yet for this match. We came to the match slightly relaxed, we told ourselves to stick to our plans, to stick to the things we always do, to play our game. 

And we did. 

Jordaan started the game off with a bang, hitting the first 3 points of the game. He had an excellent game all around, not forcing rushed shots and the like, eventually finishing with 3 3-pointers. For the 1st quarter, we played well, getting fast-breaks, as well as grabbing rebounds on both ends of the court. In the 2nd quarter, Jurong fought back, and we slightly lost focus to allow them to claw back into the game. 

In the last 2 quarters though, we managed to get a lead which we held on to till the end. We fought as a team, we hung on as a team, and we won as a team. 

Dream.Team.Fight.Win. 

Nationals THIRD

Coach

Playing the 3rd/4th game is hardest because it often is an anticlimax to the semi-finals and invites 2 disappointed teams to play for the consolation prize. You guys did well - it was obvious your motivation and drive was higher.

We could have won by more if not for the many turnovers in our backcourt. In a sense the end result was never in question. Kudos to Jurong for overachieving yet again. With limited weapons, JSS has done so well.

We ended up the exact position which we anticipated before start of season - on paper, you are the 3rd team. AHS and USS are clearly superior. Yet I think you can be very proud of yourself because we aimed (and worked) to overturn that order right from day 1. Nevermind the fact that we collapsed big time against AHS and faced an outstanding USS semi-final performance. It was not because of lack of effort. We just did not have the experience to compose ourselves mentally.

So it has been a good season. You did not let yourself down. You did not underachieve. You gave it all.

Well done!

U-14 Nationals RI 47-76 Unity Secondary School

The pressure of playing in the national semi-finals was going to get to us, we knew that right from the start, and that we would probably make some mistakes throughout the match, but we didn't know that it would get to us so badly. We made silly mistakes and played outside our game, forcing rushed shots, and missing them. 

At the start of the match, we set it off at a blistering pace, rushing to a 16-10 lead. In that run, we played good defense, getting some steals and baskets on the other end. However, we lacked the discipline to continue that pace, allowing unity to get onto a 8-0 run, and allowing them to grab an 18-16 lead at the end of the first quarter. 

Then it got all downhill from there. We made way too many mistakes from them, with Jordaan getting his 4th foul early. Thankfully, Alex kept us in the game with a 3 as well as 2 jumpers. However, Unity was to overpower us through 4 quarters and winning us with a 29 point margin. 

However, we never gave up throughout the entire match, playing our best even though we were down by such a huge margin. The 3rd-4th match will be on the following monday, we'll definitely have to come back stronger and beat the other team for the bronze medal. 

Dream.Team.Fight.Win. 

ONE PERFECT MATCH

Coach

Unity played an excellent game and outclassed RI. We lost in score but we matched them in spirit and fight.

I feel proud that USS did not overwhelm us on the boards despite having such a height advantage. Finally we are learning the most valuable lesson of boxing out.

Dream.Team.Fight.Win.

For as long as we've been in Raffles basketball, we've been taught the mentality of Dream-team-fight-win. 

Dream. We have dreamt for a year now, its high time our dream became reality

Team. We've been a team for a year now, nobody breaks us besides ourselves

Fight. We've been fighting for a year now, we'll still be fighting

Win. Its time to win now. 

U-14 Nationals RI 37-58 Anglican High School

Today we lost not to them, but to ourselves. We came into the match wanting to talk, wanting to fight, wanting to play as a team, and yet we never managed to get anything going. We didn't talk on offense, failing to set screens for one another. Because of the fact that we lacked the want for the ball, Justin was often trapped and had to throw passes that were not up to par. In the end, we gave away many unnecessary turnovers, and handed them fast-break opportunities. 

We fought, but never as a team. We did not manage to hustle back on defense, thus when the opposition missed their fast-break lay-ups, they were able to get rebounds and put-backs. We never got to playing team defense, not helping each other, not staying focus, our trap never really got going and working. 

We didn't box out. It seems ironic that we've worked so hard on boxing out and yet we haven't been able to do it when it matters most. We allowed the centers of Anglican High to pluck rebounds over our heads, leading to easy put-backs and the like. 

Now that we've reflected on this match, we hope to bounce back even stronger than before when we play Unity in the semi-finals. If there was a time for us to step up, the time is now. 

Dream.Team.Fight.Win. 

We believe

U-14 Nationals RI 60-49 Yuying Secondary

This was to be a repeat of the Southzone finals, but we knew that we had to be careful against this team, as they were facing elimination and that they would go all out against us. We got off to slow start today. Seeing the other team playing a 2-3 zone, we took many outside shots, but not many of them were going for us, and so the low scoring. We left the 1st quarter with a 9-6 lead. 

In the 2nd quarter, we came back slightly stronger than before. We played a half court man, but we didn't communicate well within this stretch, not talking to each other about screens, sometimes losing our man, thus allowing for easy baskets. On the offensive end, we managed to get a few breakaway lay-ups, most of the time trading baskets with the opponent, ending the 2nd quarter with a 27-20 lead. 

The game progressed as plan, but we nearly threw the game away when we pushed one of our self-destruct buttons. We were outscored 20-16 in the last quarter but managed to win in 60-49. For the next 3 matches, our skills will not matter as much as our team spirit, and it is high time that we stepped out onto the court as a team, as a unit and fight together as one. 

Dream.Team.Fight.Win. 

The final stretch 

U-14 Nationals RI 58-37 Woodlands Ring Secondary

We were made to work hard for this match. Before the match, we talked about what we wanted to achieve in this match and 4/12 of us said that we wanted to talk, both on defense and offense. And yet it never happened. We were near silent the entire match, when we were down, we weren't able to pull it back together. What we depended on was our superior skills and physical abilities. What we really want: beating them using our team spirit. And part of that is to talk. 

We started strongly today, with many converted fast-break lay-ups in the first quarter. The score was also helped by Lawrence, who grabbed many offensive and defensive boards, including quite a few put-backs. But everything fell apart in the 2nd quarter. We fell asleep going into that quarter, missing easy lay-ups, playing sloppy defense, and allowing the other team to claw back into the game with a few 3-pointers. This part would have been when our talking could have kicked in, pulling the team out of its slump, and also encouraging the guys who had previously missed lay-ups. 

Thankfully, we woke up just in time to pull away in the 3rd and 4th quarter, outscoring them by a combined 17 points in the 2nd half, to come away with the win. We have to improve quickly, especially in our talking, if we are to have any chance of beating Anglican and Unity, also, our players would have to fight aggressively on the court, doing whatever it takes to win. 

Dream.Team.Fight.Win. 

The time is now.