10th Annual Basketball Tournament

"Ball is life" Taisia

"We all got really close during the practices and games... I miss the team" Fallon

"I have a lot of bruises and scratches to remember it by" Nana

"I didn't think I'd like basketball... I miss it so much" Annemarie

The annual Basketball Tournament was a huge success to say the least. A total of 21 teams participated, from 8 international schools from 4 countries. The senior games were held at American Academy while the juniors played at QSIT, the finals for all of the divisions took place at QSIT. Our own teams were very successful in the tournament, with every single one of them finishing in the top 4 places in their divisions:
Junior Girls - 1st place
Junior Boys Red - 2nd place
Junior Boys Black - 4th place
Senior Girls - 3rd place
Senior Boys - 3rd place
We had two of our players earn MVP awards, Anna from the Junior Girls team and Andrew from the Senior Boys, and our school won the sportsmanship award for the entire tournament.

Sportsmanship Award Winners

Senior Games

The senior boys games were intense. The players for BOS were crazy on the court, with amazing layups and three pointers. Their first game against American Academy (AAT) had to be stopped when one of the players dunked and bent the basketball hoop. Their team charged on undefeated in all games but one, where KIS (the team they faced again in the finals) put up a fight, the only team to beat BOS this year (57-52). Yet when it came to the fight for 1st place, BOS proved to be the better skilled team. While KIS caught up with BOS at the start of the second half, they fell behind later on. At the end of the game (50-35 for BOS), KIS got a minute long standing ovation from the fans in the stands.

KIS vs BOS

Historically New School teams are not that great, but this year student's were surprised at their performance, especially at two of the main players who led the games. However our QSIT Senior Boys still defeated them restoring the natural order of things. The crowds were tense as the score hit 39-38, in favor of QSIT. New School was called up to throw two final free throws due to a misjudged foul. Luckily our coach set the rules straight, pointing out the referees mistake, and the win was ours.

QSIT Senior Boys vs NS

Apart from the BOS vs KIS game, another match that was super intense was the senior boys game AAT vs Caspian, with AAT defeating Caspian, a school that is famous for always winning first place. Following that game - right after a stuffing KFC/Subway lunch - our senior girls played KIS. Feeling tired and unmotivated the girls lost 10-28 but reflected their anger in their game against Caspian where the girls played hard, getting complimented by other schools at how well their defense guarded Caspian's MVP Alexy. The game was said to be one of the biggest challenges the Caspian girls faced, with a score difference of 8 points. To put it into perspective, KIS, who faced Caspian in the championship, lost their game 21-46. Our senior girls played BIS for third place and won easily. 

QSIT Senior Girls vs Caspian

Junior Games

Our junior girls played fabulously, being the first junior girls team in a long time to win first place. The girls played BIS and crushed them 18-2, with Anna Crawford (winner of the junior MVP) shooting most of the points. Our QSI Red boys team played a close game with the Iberi boys team - they have never competed in our tournament before - but won 25-19.

QSIT Junior Boys Blacks vs Iberi 

QSIT Junior Girls vs BIS

By Annemarie Imnadze and Taisia Crowley