(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.