From January 25 to 28, the YCIS Boys’ Basketball team were met extremely chilly conditions; however, this would not hamper a very successful first day in Beijing at the ACAMIS Silver Division Basketball tournament, hosted by Beijing BISS International School.

Despite some early nerves, the boys got the day off to an excellent start with an extremely convincing performance over our Shanghai rivals, YCIS Shanghai Pudong. This was a huge victory for our boys as it was their first ACAMIS basketball win and it really set the tone for the rest of the day. Their second and final game for the day against our Chengdu neighbours, Leman International School. This was a real nail biter and had both the coaches and spectators on the edges of the seats. With some nerves-of-steel 3-point shots, three 3-minute overtimes and a never-say-die attitude from the YCIS boys, they were able to come out on top 28-26 over a strong LIS team.

Day 2 proved to be a tough and long day for our boys’ team. With 3 matches in the day, the legs became heavy but the boys continued to fight through and show a never-say-die attitude. Unfortunately, despite their effort and determination, the boys were unable to pull off a victory in their final three round-robin matches.

At the end of the round robin stage the boys would finish in 5^th place, decided only by a points differential. Normally in ACAMIS, this would mean their semifinal hopes would be out the window; however, with a slightly different tournament format, the boys were still in with a shot. The final day proved too tough for our boys. With a small squad, we just didn’t quite have the legs to take us over the final hurdle. We fought hard and played hard, but couldn’t win our final 2 matches, leaving us in 6^th place overall.

While the results weren’t the ones we hoped for, the boys still proudly represented YCIS Chongqing with some excellent sportsmanship and a play-hard play-fair attitude. This was rewarded with the Silver Division Basketball Sportsmanship trophy.