Kitchen of Jasmine triumph

KITCHEN OF JASMINE powered their way past Team Wayne A 66-51 to keep their hopes alive in advancing to the quarterfinals of the 2009 Brunei Pepsi Cup last night at the Brunei Basketball Association (BBA) court in Batu Bersurat.

After dropping their opening game to the Chop Eng Seng Keo Pinoy Resources, Kitchen of Jasmine proved themselves to be a better side by playing with better teamwork and defence.

With the towering centre at 6ft 4in, Md Zainul Ashyraf Hj Hussin, contesting and blocking shots with his height advantage, Kitchen of Jasmine opened up a 22-11 lead to end the first quarter with a good shooting performance.

Team Wayne A began the second quarter poorly after making turnovers. They tried to execute on offence by putting pressure on the defence of Kitchen of Jasmine.

Armando Estoesta did the most damage for Kitchen of Jasmine as he was scoring at will from the paint and from the outside.

Lim Hong Keong shone for Team Wayne A and finished with 12 points.

On the other hand, national cager Tan Ye Wei of Team Wayne A was held scoreless until he converted a pair of free throws with less than a minute to half time.

Kitchen of Jasmine held a comfortable 36-19 cushion to bring into the third quarter but Team Wayne A came back to life as Kitchen of Jasmine lost momentum on defence.

Team Wayne A exploited that and capped off a 20-9 quarter to cut the deficit to six to end the quarter down 45-39.

With renewed confidence, Team Wayne A started scoring consistently to continue their resurgence.

Kitchen of Jasmine regrouped in the final period as they were not willing to let the game slip away.

Kitchen of Jasmine turned to Md Zainul once again, who took over to score eight of his 14 points in the final period from under the basket aside from helping in rebounds.

Kitchen of Jasmine could have had an easier game if they have made their charities.

The game got away for Team Wayne A when they went into foul trouble and made a couple of costly turnovers giving Kitchen of Jasmine easy access to points on fastbreaks to run away with the win.

Head coach of Kitchen of Jasmine, Maxim Yap, said, "We played with a 1-2-2 defence with our back court playing man to man to pressure the dribblers. We didn't want to allow our opponents to set their plays. But we had problems in the third quarter on defence that let the opponent come back."

Yap also mentioned that his team was a lot better compared to their opening game. "The first game was a letdown because we did not perform as expected.

"We have had five practice sessions and I think that the team can be better. We are not yet at the optimum level yet. But we are missing our other key player, Han Yee Kwang, who can really make the team better."

Estoesta led Kitchen of Jasmine with a game high 17 points while Tan topscored for Team Wayne A with 14 points.

In an earlier game, KOF outclassed Gadong Boy 86-65.

Tonight's game will see Auto Jaya take on Babes Boutique in the first game at 7pm followed by Filipino powerhouse Linktech against Chua Auto Mobile at 8.30pm.

The Brunei Times