The alarm rang; it was 2:50 am on a cold, dark Tuesday morning of February 10. I was beyond tired but had to endure. I got changed, and my dad drove me to school. When I arrived, both the varsity girls' and boys' basketball teams were there, awaiting the bus. Instead of thinking,
"How well will we do this year?"
We were all unanimously thinking,
"When can we sleep?"
The bus arrived, we all hopped on and went straight to sleep, well, at least that's what the guys were doing. The girls, however, had energy to talk and play games on the way to the airport. Long story short, we parted ways, and the boys flew from Penang to KL and then from KL to Taiwan. However, this is when things took a little turn.
I, Matthias, had forgotten to fill out my arrival card before entering Taiwan, so at immigration, I was denied access and had to fill it out on my phone. However, my One Plus 7 Pro thought that would be a great time to start glitching. Mr. Latham was patiently standing behind the immigration counter while I completed my card. I did, and when I came down to collect my luggage, the whole team was waiting for me.
We were supposed to get a snack from the 7-11 there, a super-advanced, futuristic convenience store where you could get hot meals to go. However, due to my delay, we were unable to. We all hopped on this double-story party bus with subwoofers, speakers, and cool lighting, but since we were still tired, we slept most of the way to Taichung, Taiwan.
After the 2-hour bus drive, we arrived at Morrison Academy (MAC). When we got off the bus, we felt relieved by Taiwan's cool, dry weather. We all dropped our luggage off and changed to get ready for the opening ceremony. After the opening ceremony that evening, we all went to 7-11 for some snacks, then went to bed early to prepare for the next day.
Then the first day came, the ACSC pool plays, where it's not elimination, but it sets up the brackets. Our first game was against SPH, a school known for its strong basketball team, but Dalat put up a fight, and we won 56-46. However, our second game that day was against MAC, and we did not play well, so we lost by 51-76.
Day 2 was when we had our last pool-play game in the morning, and then, depending on that pool, we played against another team. Our first pool-play game on day 2 was against ICS HK, and we won 75-53. And later that day, we played YISS in the elimination round and won 64-56.
Then day 3 came. Our first game was against ICS HK, as we had not faced them in elimination, and we beat them 52-38. But then, in our second game on day 3, we played MAC for a finals spot and lost 37-67. After that game, our entire team was devastated, but if we beat SPH again the next day, we could face MAC in the finals.
The next day, it was Dalat against SPH. However, Dalat lost by 4 points, 36-40, and Aaron Morrison says that "It was a hard fought game and they just happened to outplay us that day even though I believe we were the better team." However, despite our loss, most of the team enjoyed the SPH players, so we cheered them on for the finals against MAC.
The finals were the craziest game of all ACSC basketball this year, as SPH was down by 4 points and there were 8 seconds left, and it was an inbound for SPH on the opposite side of the court. When they inbounded it, a player dribbled all the way up the court and shot a contested three, and it went in. But instead of the usual three, it was a 1. There were 2.81 seconds left on the clock, and this player had to make this free throw to tie the game, but the home crowd was screaming and shaking everything, so he ultimately missed, and MAC won by 1 point, and SPH was extremely sad.
In conclusion, the ACSC basketball trip to Taiwan was a lot of fun, where we could experience different cultures and weather and interact with people from various Asian countries. If you are interested, try for a varsity sport for the experience and fun it can bring.
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