Reflection: ISAC Boy's Basketball

DIRECTIONS: Within two weeks of completion of an activity, attached a typed Reflective Essay with this form to your CAS Coordinator. The reflection should be in essay format with a minimum of 150 words in length. Make sure to attach this page to your reflection essay. Your essay should explore your experience. Consider the following questions:

 Describe the activity. What did you do at each stage? Include dates where relevant.
 What did you hope to accomplish by this activity? What did you actually accomplish?
 What difficulties did you encounter? Did you feel at any stage that you were failing to
achieve what you wanted from this activity?
 What did you hope to learn from this activity, about yourself, about others, or about
academic subjects? (For example: self-confidence, modesty, curiosity, objectivity, new
skills, determination and the ability to meet challenges).
 Did anyone help you during this activity? If so, describe the help given.
 How will you provide thoughtful consideration, such as planning, reviewing progress,
reporting on this activity?
 Does this activity lend itself to reflection on outcomes and personal learning
 How did you record what you have done for this activity? Please provide evidence that you have actually done it.


       ISAC Boy's Basketball was the last event in this year's ISAC sports tournament. Our Boy's Basketball team was confident that we can place 3rd place and above this year after losing to Baguio by only 8 points, and they were the strongest team out there, next to the host school, BSM. After our arrival, we had the opportunity to observe the other teams warm up and shoot around, and get the feel for the courts. Our coaches were confident that we would do well this year. That night I went home to my host's giant mansion with AJ, my teammate who I was partnered with. We had a good dinner, and slept early, although it was hard, because we were both really excited to play.
       The next morning, after the briefing of the BSM atheltics director and the team picture taking, the first game had started and were out at the warm up courts because we played the 2nd game of the day against Brent Manila, who we lost to by 5 points when we went to their home court at Brent South a week before ISAC, a game we SHOULDVE won if it weren't for my stupid last minute heroics, our should I say selfishness, wherein I took a shot with 20 seconds left on the shot clock, when we were leading by 2 points. Javier and I were both out of the game by the last 20 seconds of the 4th quarter, and Brent Manila was able to tie the game pushing it to overtime, without the 2 most aggressive scorers on the team. William on his own, took control of the game, scored 8 points in overtime, but still couldn't pull off a win. In short, we knew we could beat this team. After the 1st half, we were up by 4 points. But after bad passes, missed shots, slow help defense and maybe the pressure of being in an ISAC game, we lost to Brent Manila by 5 points, 24-19. Not to mention, an obvious lack of teamwork between our 2 coaches. I could tell, our team was devastated by this loss, as prior to the game, we were confident in pulling off a big win against this team. It hurt to loss to this team, but it was a reality, and we could do nothing but play harder in the next game against CIS. After lunch, we played Cebu International School. They had only 2 players who could really play in the team, but all of them fought hard. They had a couple of soccer players on the team that I knew of, but they just as hard or maybe even harder in basketball than in soccer. I asked some of the guys from BSM who faced CIS before us, and despite pulling off a 20 point win against them, they said that they were really tough and physical. But despite all of that, we started off really well against CIS. We were up at the end of the 1st half but they were only a couple of shots behind. I for one, was not having a great offensive game, I was missing my shots, and I couldn't run any plays and I was getting a lot of turnovers. During the 2nd half, we still kept the lead. However, our team was struggling on defense, we were lazy, we weren't closing out. They managed to shoot 2 open three pointers in a row because of our poor defense. By the 4th quarter, they managed to get an impossible and1 shot which gave them the lead. Our team was getting nervous, and I could tell that we were scared to lose to CIS. We still fought hard though, but they fought harder. It seemed obvious that even if our team was more skilled, they had more heart than us. We ended up with a disappointing 2 points loss against CIS. This loss hurt even more than the 1st game, because we KNEW we were better than them skillwise, but they won because they fought harder than us, and I don't know what it is but I think we were kind of intimidated by them or were scared to get aggressive against them which turned the game around in the last 5 minutes of the game.
Our last game was against BSM, a great all around team. They were good passers, shooters, and most importantly great defenders. They knew how to play together because their team practices all year round with the same coach in and out of school. Our game against them was pretty one sided, but we played a great game. They were just way more experienced than us, and their ball movement and shooting was excellent. We were again faced with the press and sometimes we broke it, sometimes we didn't. I got my game back on, making my open 3's, giving the ball around and calling plays, even if it didn't all work as expected. We lost our game against BSM by around 20 points, but at least we knew we were getting better and our feel to the ISAC games were improving. By the end of the first day we had 0 wins and 3 losses, luckily our girls were doing great, so that kind of made things better for the Brent Subic representatives.
      Our second day in the tournament would determine if we were gonna make it to the semi finals or not. We had to win all our games this day. The first game was against FAM (Faith Academy Mindanao.) They had 2 shooters on their team, and they had one star player who was aggressive to the hoop. We HAD to win this game. We started off great, we were making our shots, our passing was alright, and we were running plays. The only bad part was our defense, we were weak under the ring as usual. We were leading after the 1st half, and we just needed to keep this up. During the 4th quarter, however, they were starting to catch up to us, and eventually took the lead, we got the lead back, but it was a really close game. We ended up beating FAM with 2 points and got our first win of the tournament. Our second game was against SISC - Southville. They were the defending champions, but their team this year was really young. Their ISAC team last year became their A Team who we faced and lost to by only 6 points in a pickup game a week before ISAC. Their players were young, but they were smart, and they knew how to pass the ball. Their teamwork was great, and they knew what to do on the court. Their plays were ran, ran correctly and continuously in all their games. Now it was our turn to face them. We started off alright, as in most games we play. We were again ahead after the 1st half. However during the 3rd and 4th quarter our defense collapsed. They probably scored around 12 points by open shots under the ring. Their wasn't much help defense, or defense at all, going on at the post. Their plays confused our big men and they had open shots under the ring. We again died down in the last few minutes and lost to Southville by around 5 points. This was another disappointing loss. Our hopes for making it to the Semi Finals were crushed as we had to face the undefeated team of Baguio who was beating every time by 15 points or more, including BSM who beat us by 20 points. However, we had to keep our heads high, and keep playing the game. There's no room for giving up and beating the potential Champions would be an honor, as we did in the ISAC tournament 2 years ago where we gave Brent Manila, the champions that year, their only loss in the tournament.
         The next day, our team was sore, some players had some minor injuries, and our morale was low, but we had to fight. This might be our last game in the tournament, and the last game of the seniors, so all 4 seniors started this game with me. We had to play our heart out. Baguio was cruising through this tournament, and we were determined to give them their first real fight. We've played them before, and we know we have a chance against them. Unfortunately, they have gotten a lot better, and more aggressive, and they were prepared to defend their "no-loss" title, so we were down 18-0 in the first quarter. They were much more physical and their defense was intimidating. During the 2nd and 3rd quarter, their bench players played, so we managed to score a few points here and there. I made some shots, and I moved the ball around a lot, especially to the seniors. Our seniors that game gave it everything. I could tell. They were sprinting the whole time, and they fought hard for every rebound and every ball. In the 4th quarter, our real starters faced Baguio's starters. We had a good battle, but Baguio proved to be much stronger and played much smarter basketball than us. They made their shots but their wasn't really much teamwork. They just had 5 great individual players who all dominated. We lost to Baguio by 20 points or so but I believe that this is the game where we really gave it all. We respected the Baguio team, and I was really inspired to reach their level of basketball. Coach Crudo told us that it took them 4 years to get to this level. They were once like us, but because they worked hard for it during the season and during the off season, they were now the #1 team in the ISAC Boy's Basketball tournament this year.
       Meanwhile, our girls were doing great, they made it to the semi finals, and beat FAM to make it to the Finals.  Unfortunately, they lost to the more experienced and much bigger BSM team placing 2nd in this years ISAC Girl's football tournament. After that, everyone was excited for the Basketball Finals game between BSM and Brent Baguio. It was intense. BSM was playing well, making their shots, getting steals through good defense and traps and Baguio was doing great as well with their 5 starters dominating on the court. By the end of the 1st half, Baguio was down 10 points and none of Baguio's bench players have played yet. During the 3rd quarter, their best player, Sung An had a scary fall, and was taken out of the game. Baguio was still trailing behind by 5-8 points. After a few minutes, Sung got back into the game limping! He still played even though it was obvious that he was really hurt. He still ended up scoring most of the points for the remaining minutes of the game! This to me, showed a lot of character, and passion, and heart for the game of basketball. For him to do that really inspired me to work hard so I can one day make it to that point, and to have that feeling of being in the Finals and sacrificing everything I can to win the game. Baguio was catching up, and were behind only 4 points, with only a minute remaining. Baguio fought hard, but they only had 5 players. BSM had 10. Only 1 Bench player played for Baguio for about 2 minutes while Sung had to get taped after his hard fall. BSM's bench could also shoot and play defense and pass, unlike Baguio, so it was obvious that Baguio's players were deteriorating and getting exhausted. Sung An, a great freethrow shooter probably around (80%) missed around 15 free throws in that game. In the end, Baguio lost to BSM by 6 points with a score of 60 - 54. It was a great game to watch. I was really inspired by it, and hopefully my teammates were. I learned to play under pressure, improve my passing and shooting skills, and I got to know my teammates, and how they play, a little bit better. As this year's team captain, I learned how to be an example to my teammates, to tell them what's right and wrong and how they can improve, even if I, myself make a lot of mistakes. I've learned how to talk to them in a nicer way, rather than screaming at them on the court and I've learned how to boost the team morale up by talking to them and telling them that the game isn't over until the final buzzer sounds. Even though we didn't do so well in this ISAC tournament, I learned a lot about the game, and how much more I can get better and how much more our team could improve. We have a long way ahead of us, and hopefully next year, we can bring home the gold!

(A)(S) Journal Entry #2 [Boy's Basketball Varsity]

      The tournament in Baguio was a good learning experience for the team and myself. It was our first time to play away from home and I was excited.
      Our first game was against a local team from Baguio (wearing green/white) We started off well with a 2 point lead after the 1st quarter. Our defense was great, and we had no turnovers. However, during the 2nd quarter, they put a press on us which changed the game completely. Some of my teammates, including myself occasionally had turnovers here and there because of the press. Sometimes it was because no one came to help and sometimes it was just because we threw the ball away due to panic. It was hard and we were down around 12 points after the 3rd quarter. Also, for some reason I felt really really exhausted already so I asked to be subbed out. This was unusual for me because I thought I was actually pretty fit and I haven't gotten tired during a game all season to the point where I needed to be subbed out. I don't know for sure if it was because of the higher altitude of Baguio or because we were just playing a way too fast pace. During the 4th quarter, we caught up to being around 5 points behind, but it was all too late. 
       Our second game was against Brent Baguio. We saw their game against the regional champion team, and they looked very intimidating as they won by a 0.3 second three pointer. I admit, I was a little nervous for this game as Baguio and Subic's Boy's team has always had a rivalry in ISAC competition including this year's ISAC volleyball tournament. We held them well during the 1st half of the game. The game started off with their top player, Sung An, getting the ball from the jumpball, dribbling and going for the drive, but getting rejected by me! I was pretty proud of myself for that. Our defense was still good, but our post players had trouble containing Buckley, their prime offense under the ring. We ran a couple of new plays, designed by our temporary head coach, Dr G, because Coach Crudo couldn't make it. The plays were successful and it made the giant Baguio coach furious! We trailed behind Baguio by around 5 points after the 3rd quarter as Javier and I were on fire. I was playing a good game, making 3's from every spot, and passing the ball around, usually ending up with Javier to finish or get to the free throw line. On the 4th quarter, Baguio started pressing again, we lost the ball again a couple of times, but we kept fighting. Javier and I continued to lead the team on offense but we ended up losing to baguio by 8 points. It was a great game and Dr G said that it was the best game that he's seen me play. I managed to score 22 points and 8 assists - almost reached my goal of a double double! (but still around 7 turnovers or so) 
        Our last game was against the regional champion team (wearing blue/white.) Dr G wanted us to have fun in this game and just play our game. He started the "asian" team as he called it, with William, Adam, David, Kevin, and Stin. We were down 10-4 in the first 5 minutes, but it seemed like they were having fun, especially because it was our first game with support from our girl's team. After, the obvious mismatch between the players, Dr G replaced the "asian team" with the "all filipino team (except for Louie) with me, AJ, Javier, Cyron, and Louie. We started doing something right on offense, but our defense was just crap. They were way more experienced than us, and it seemed like they've been playing together for quite some time. I personally disliked this team because they started their bench for the first half, which were still pretty good. Then during the 2nd half, their first team came on. Their first team was really frustrating and annoying. They trash talked me and the other Filipinos in tagalog, and made fun of our foreign players. They were very disrespectful, especially their point guard who was in my face the whole time he was on. We had some pushing and slapping, and elbowing going on behind the ref and everytime I would do something to him to get an advantage, he would act and fall down and complain to the refs. I really did not like playing against this team, but I knew that it happens a lot in the game of basketball especially if a team knows their good. We lost the game by around 20 points after a barrage of three point shots by the opposing team.
        Overall, the trip to Baguio was a success, and I believe that it really improved our team's skills and teamwork, and let us realize how it feels like to play with pressure. We saw better players/teams than us, and hopefully inspired to reach that level as well. We're all getting better.