White Haven inch closer to title

FAVOURITES White Haven are one game away from the championship after demolishing Pyrogen 93-55 in the Belait District Basketball Association's Under-23 tournament at the Kg Baru basketball court in Seria last night.

Both teams were neck and neck in the first period but White Haven managed to edge ahead 16-15 going into the second quarter. They never looked back opening up a 47-24 lead going into halftime.

The game became lopsided in the third period as Pyrogen couldn't lift off on offence. To make matters worse White Haven were cleaning the boards to score on fastbreaks to open up a 31-point margin going into the final period (at 68-37).

Pyrogen started out with a full court pressure defence in the final period to try and slow things down for their opponents but it failed as White Haven went on their way to send their opponents crashing to their first loss in four games.

"Our opponents were pressing us in the fourth quarter but we decided to return the favour by putting up our own full court pressure defence," said Cheah Yong Sin, the coach of White Haven.

Asked about their final match against another favourites Easyway on Thursday, Cheah replied: "We're confident we can win the championship. It has been a good campaign so far and we have managed to play with both good offence and defence."

According to David Choo, the Pyrogen forward, they lost the match because they let their opponents to outrebound them. "We couldn't get most of the rebounds. They capitalised on their offensive rebounds and pretty much overwhelmed us. We did try to slow them down with the full court pressure in the final period but it was just not effective enough," said David.

Tribal ended their campaign on a high note scoring their only victory of the tournament with a 66-59 scoreline over Yun Hin Trading Co in the day's second match.

Choo Yung Kang had a game-high 29 points for Tribal while Raymond Chong topscored for Yun Hin Trading Co with 25 points.

"We managed to get our first win because we depended on our fastbreaks. Our opponents weren't aware of it and didn't go back on defence," said Yung Kang.

The tournament continues tomorrow with White Haven hoping to secure the championship against Easyway at 7pm followed by Yun Hin Trading Co taking on Chicken King at 8pm.

The Brunei Times