JIAN-pions!

THEY say speed kills. Well, it certainly killed off tradition last night at the Brunei Basketball Association court in Batu Bersurat.

Choo the Flash Yung Jian raced down the floor with just over six seconds left to score the game winning layup to lift Easyway/ CK Tang to a 71-69 victory over D'Babes/ Sharks in the final of the Aewon Cup 2011 Basketball Championship Tournament last night.

It was the first win for the national side in the tournament stretching back to more than a decade having seen the annual tourney, held in conjunction with His Majesty's Birthday celebrations, taken by a Filipino side in previous years.

Easyway had carried a 55-49 lead going into the final 10 minutes. But Alnajer Daris, who had 12 points in the fourth quarter, helped sparked an 8-0 run that brought the match down to the wire with the scores tied at 64-64 with under three minutes to play.

But, there was a major blow for D'Babes/ Sharks when Daris suffered from a cramp with 38 seconds to play.

They were holding on to their 66-65 lead but Ben Sim would help Easyway regain the lead with two free throws in the next possession.

D'Babes/ Sharks missed their ensuing shot and were left to foul Sim once again. With the largely pro-Filipino crowd booing him, Sim beat the pressure to coolly hit another two from the charity stripe for a 69-66 advantage with 10 seconds to go.

A quick timeout worked to perfection for D'Babes/Sharks as they tied the game with a prayer shot with Marjomar Aying banking home the trey.

With no timeouts left, Choo quickly grabbed the inbounds pass and avoided every obstacle to score on a layup that sealed the deal.

F De Leon had a chance to steal one but his shot from the midcourt was off the mark to hand Easyway the championship.

"After they hit the three, we had no timeouts left. The only way (to win the game) was just to push the ball up and gamble on a quick shot," said Choo in an interview with The Brunei Times after the victory.

"I knew it was going in but I couldn't just celebrate straight away as there was still some time on the clock so I just got back on defence quickly," added the 23-year-old player.

The point guard had the hot hands going for a team-high of 20 points. He filled up much of the stats sheet and was just short of a triple-double dishing out eight assists and hauling down eight rebounds. Choo played good defence as well, adding four steals to his name.

Captain Sim had another good game posting a double-double with 15 points and 10 rebounds while Muhd Zainul Ashyraf Hj Hussin also provided good numbers with nine points, 17 rebounds and four blocks in the win.

On the other hand, Daris had a game-high to pace D'Babes/ Sharks with 24 points and Mark Del Mundo had an efficient game with 18 points. Elvin Requintin was also in double figures chipping in 10 points in a losing effort.

The biggest factor for the game was that their best player and point guard had an off day. D'Babes/ Sharks are a team known for their run-and-gun style of play but last night Don Mordeno had a bad day with only one point to his name.

His partner Aying also struggled throughout the match posting only six points, all coming in the second half.

The game was instead kept close through their bigs with Del Mundo doing plenty of cleaning up and despite Requintin getting a good start, he was pretty much seated on the bench due to foul trouble.

In addition, the Easyway coach Kevin Reece, who is also the national basketball coach, had finally made the right adjustments going with the 3-2 zone defence that eventually gave them a quick start leading by as many as 11 (13-2) midway through the opening period.

It was a double delight for local basketball fans as Bukit Ladang survived a late rally by MK Syarikat Jazmar to defeat them 85-77 in the third place playoff.The Brunei Times