Cagers from Faculty of Science truimph at UBD tournament

DEFENDING Champions Faculty of Science easily defeated Faculty of Business, Economics and Policy Studies (FBEPS) II 61-32 to top Group A of the Universiti Brunei Darussalam (UBD) Inter-Faculty basketball tournament at the UBD Sports Complex in Tungku Link yesterday. In the second match, Easyway came up on top 43-41 against Epsilon to join FOS from Group A in the semi-finals.

On Thursday, Sky Lim's 18-point performance lifted the Institute of Medicine (IM) to a 37-36 victory over FBEPS I in Group B sending them into the semi-finals of the competition.

On the other hand, Lim Kok Hui topscored for FBEPS I with 12 points while Vince Lim contributed 10 points to a losing cause.

"We came into the game determined and ready to play. All we had was victory in mind," Mohammad Murtaza Sheikh, Captain of IM.

IM were coming off after a 43-47 loss to BMC on Monday and knew that only victory would ensure them passage into the next round.

"We needed to bounce back and Sky really stepped up today (Thursday) that helped us win the game," said Mohammad.

FBEPS I started out the better of the two as they took a 14-19 lead midway through the first half. IM had the size advantage and were attacking from the low post while FBEPS relied on their outside shooting. IM then seized the lead at 20-19 going into halftime.

Offence seemed to have slow down for both sides in the second half as they were having trouble handling the ball, in turn committing turnovers. FBEPS I were applying full court man-to-man pressure defence but both teams remained tied at 21-21 midway through the second half.

FBEPS I then relied on some good passing and connected on their next three field goals to take a 29-22 lead with five minutes to go. However, Sky was at the task as he heated up scoring on fastbreaks while FBEPS I self destructed. IM finally regained the lead with a minute to go at 33-32 as they headed for the victory.

Lim Kok Shien, playing coach of FBEPS I, was not too worried about the result as they have secured themselves into the next round with a 45-29 rout of BMC on Tuesday.

"I believe that the next round will be difficult. But I know that it will be different for us with the level of intensity. We will just have to step it up on defence and our offence will follow," said Kok Shien. FOS will take on IM in the first semi-final at 4.30pm followed by FBEPS I going up against in the second semi-final at 5.40pm on Tuesday.

The Brunei Times