Temburong manage to break bank

TEMBURONG withstood a strong challenge from the Brunei Association of Banks (BAB) and left it till late to secure an 82-66 victory last night in Group B to advance into the semi-finals of the 9th National Sports Festival's (PSK) men's basketball event at the Brunei Basketball Association court in Batu Bersurat.

Five players hit double figures for the Temburong side which fielded a roster of former national players.

Rosli Said topscored for the defending champions with 17 points in the triumph while Cavan Kong scored a game-high 24 points to pace BAB in the losing effort.

BAB got off to a hot start and were firing on all cylinders from both the inside and out. They put the Temburong defence on edge by driving to the hoop.

Temburong responded by passing the ball around and hauling down the rebounds. This led to them successfully scoring from the inside, with the BAB defence failing to cover their lanes.

Nonetheless, BAB managed to open up a 25-18 lead heading into the second quarter.

The story didn't change in the second period and BAB continued to run well to convert quick transition points.

Both teams were hustling for loose balls, throwing their bodies to the deck.

Temburong kept it close by outrunning their opponents for fastbreaks.

BAB had lost some of their scoring touch but maintained their advantage from the charity stripe with a 39-30 scoreline at halftime.

The game changed in the third period with both teams playing sloppy and finding difficulty in getting any shots to fall.

Temburong went with the basic man-to-man defence midway through the quarter and were drawing fouls at the other end of the court to end the stanza on a 6-0 run, closing the deficit to within 53-50 going into the last quarter.

Temburong finally got the lead at 57-55 early in the period. In the end, it was the experience of the Temburong side that helped them settle the match with a nervy finish from BAB.

"It was our man-to-man defence that kept our opponents under a lot of pressure in the fourth quarter. We saw how they couldn't bring the ball up resulting in turnovers and it just gave us hope," Rosli told The Brunei Times.

When asked on their confidence on defending their crown, Rosli replied: "We're not that confident as KB (Kuala Belait) are a good team with current national and former Barracudas players. But we're definitely going to give our best shot and put up a good fight."

The second match saw Brunei Shell Petroleum top Group B with a flawless record with a 56-49 victory over Royal Brunei Airlines .

The competition continues tomorrow with Belait facing the Institutes of Higher Education in Group A at 7pm. The second game will see Brunei-Muara go head to head against Tutong in the same group at 8.30pm.The Brunei Times