SH benefit in unfinished business

IT was an unbefitting ending to a final which could have been so much more.

SH were crowned the champions of the 23 years old and below Brunei Youth Basketball Tournament in a game that was marked by controversy.

SH were leading 76-61 against Jia Hua Enterprise with more than three minutes to play before the game was put to a halt due to downpour.

"Actually the organisers wanted to postpone the match but we couldn't accept that because some of the players on the team will be playing in the upcoming Sultan Cup and also the Borneo Cup too. It would be a waste for the players to make their way from Bandar just to play three minutes," SH forward Lim Liang Wei told The Brunei Times after the win.

"We were willing to give the match to them (Jia Hua Enterprise) but they came to the conclusion to just give it to us since we were leading at that point," he said.

Foo Gwen Tong was the topscorer for SH with 22 points while Soon Kian Leong and Lim poured in 17 and 11 points respectively in the win.

Hung Jiunn Nan scored a game-high 24 points to pace Jia Hua Enterprise while Choo Yung Kang contributed 12 points and Hii Wei chipped in another 11 to the losing cause.

Jia Hua Enterprise started off as the better team with SH being sloppy and making turnovers. SH were not passing the ball enough and couldn't get their big men the ball in the paint to trail 16-23 heading into the second quarter.

It was the same affair in the second period and Jia Hua Enterprise were draining their shots. They were, however, slowly getting into foul trouble but still kept up the pressure on SH to stay on top at 38-32 at halftime.

SH picked up their game in the third stanza and began to have success getting the ball into the paint.

They started to box out and dominated the boards at both ends of the floor while limiting their opponents at the offensive end with a man-to-man zone defence strategy to snatch the lead 55-53 going into the final quarter.

SH continued to play with good energy and were running circles around their opponents.

They were slashing their way to the basket as Jia Hua Enterprise began to lose focus on defence.

SH also managed to pick up steals which they took advantage of to go and score on fastbreaks, eventually extending their lead to double figures before it started raining cats and dogs.

"The performance of the team was good in the second half and it is a good tune up for upcoming tournaments. We get to work on our chemistry," said Lim.

On the other hand, Jia Hua Enterprise felt that the game could have gone either way despite facing a double-digit deficit at that point.

"It was not a fair loss for us. I thought that it was possible for us to minimise the damage eventhough with the time running down. The ball is round and anything can still happen but we were not given a choice with the heavy rain," said centre of Jia Hua Enterprise Cheong Si Wei.

In the third place playoff, ABC pipped Agel 57-55 to take the bronze.

More basketball action continues today with the last two games of the group stages of the Goh Hock Kee Cup at the Brunei Basketball Association court in Batu Bersurat.

The first game will see Propel Services face Fontanaz in Group A at 6.45pm. The second match pits Soon Lee-Easyway 'A' against Soon Lee-Easyway 'B' at 8.15pm.

The Brunei Times