Easyway at war: The A Team they are not

When the cat's away the mouse will play.

The absence of national coach Kevin Reece proved decisive in last night's Goh Hock Kee Cup 2010 match between Soon Lee-Easyway 'A' and Soon Lee-Easyway 'C'.

Filled to the brim with players from the national team but without the American on the bench to hold their hands, Soon Lee-Easyway 'A' lacked direction and lost to their 'C' counterparts 87-75.

Reece could not be at the Brunei Basketball Association court in Batu Bersurat because of 'personal reasons', and it was a good thing he wasn't because he would have been even more animated than usual had he seen his players' half-hearted performance.

"Without coach Reece there was less pressure on them. That also meant they were less focused," explained Soon Lee-Easyway 'A' assistant coach Maxim Yap of the loss. "They had the lead but they lost focus.

"Shooting guard Yap Chun Ping and point guard Poh Yung Hui were injured, and Muiz Abdul Ghani had a groin problem so we had to depend on our bench.

"It's not really an excuse but the result wouldn't have any consequence since we are already through (to the semi-finals). We could afford to run our subs out.

"We wanted to run our subs out but as you can see, they can't make it."

Yap spoke too soon.

After checking with the organisers, he found out the result meant Soon Lee-Easyway 'A' finish as runners-up in Group A while Soon Lee-Easyway 'C' pip them for top spot.

It is definitely a loss which will come back to bite them if they lose to defending champions Dodge in tonight's semi-final. Even if they could afford to lose last night's match, they should have been playing to prove a point that they are not in the A team for nothing and keep their momentum heading into the semi-finals.

Soon Lee-Easyway 'A' started last night's match as expected, with a strong 7-2 run paving the way for a 25-22 cushion after the first period.

It took just a few minutes into the second quarter to see that Soon Lee-Easyway 'C' was not going to go down without a fight though.

Some careless play by Soon Lee-Easyway 'A' created points off turnovers for their opponents, and a quick spurt saw Soon Lee-Easyway 'C' pull to 31-30 after a time-out half-way through the quarter.

They took the lead soon after and never looked back to score an upset.

The Brunei Times