The finals started off with a bang as Pioneer Junior College managed to convert on their very first shot of the game, barely 10 seconds in. This immediately made their crowd go into a frenzy and momentum quickly shifted to their side. This was Pioneer's first foray into the A Division Basketball Finals and their school support was going all out to cheer them on. However, our players were calm and we managed to match that shot with a 3pt shot of our own, getting our own crowd involved and silencing our opponent's supporters. From then on, the game went to and fro, but we managed to go on a 14-4 run to close out the first quarter, allowing us to hold a 19-11 lead going into the 2nd quarter.
In the 2nd quarter, PJC showed their spirit and toughness as they locked down on defence and started to convert more and more of their shots, while drawing fouls on our players. By the 2nd quarter, 3 of our key players had 3 fouls and were in foul trouble and this was very worrying for our team. As a result, we had to resort to playing more passively, allowing PJC to outscore us by 3 points in this quarter. We took a 5 point lead, 33-28 into halftime
The moment the 3rd quarter started, our players set the tone with disciplined defence, and aggression on the offensive end as PJC were in the penalty with 4 team fouls, just 3 mins into the quarter. This allowed us to slow the game down more and also gave us easy points at the free throw line, which we were able to convert more often than not. We scored 22 points in this quarter, the most amongst any quarter during this game, and held on to a 11 point lead going into the 4th quarter.
The 4th quarter was more of the same as we slowly managed to continue to steadily burn the clock down and stretch the lead, making sure we made the opponents work hard on every possession that they had while they were trying to put the ball in the basket. Time was on our side this time, and we managed to seal the deal, eventually winning by a final scoreline of 69-53, repeating Back to Back Championships, a first for Raffles Boys Basketball!
On behalf of the team, a huge thank you to all the alumni who came to support us, even during preliminary games and 2nd round games. Your presence meant a lot to us when we were playing on the court and we were really encouraged. We would also like to thank our coach, coach Low Tong who guided us and led us throughout the journey and made sure that we were in the best position to win each game. Last but definitely not the least, we would like to thank Mr Carlsen Tay, Ms Elaine Wong, and Mr Tan Khoon Han for being the best teachers in charge, taking care of all our welfare off the court and handling all the administrative stuff for us. This season was truly a memorable one for every single one of the players and it would not have been possible without all of you. Once again from the bottom of our hearts, thank you.
Points by Quarter:
1st 2nd 3rd 4th
RI 19 14 22 14
PJC 11 17 16 9