Thailand's Rising Stars out of Brunei's reach

THE national basketball team failed to record a single win from their 5th TOA Thailand Open Phuket Championship 2012 campaign but can take solace from the fact that they managed to hold their opponents below the century mark in their final two games.

Brunei, playing under the banner of CS Cold Storage, fell 98-60 to Thailand's Rising Star in their final match yesterday at the Saphan Hin Sports Complex in Phuket, Thailand.

Lim Liang Wei (pic) top scored for the Sultanate with 16 points with Ben Sim and Soon Kian Leong also scoring into double figures with 15 and 14 points respectively in the loss.

Rising Star's Dasom Wutipong scored a game high 21 points. Teammates Lakhon Bandit and Wacharapong provided plenty of firepower with 19 and 17 points. Mahing Phusit and Chalormdech contributed another 12 and 11 points respectively.

Despite losing all the matches in the tournament, national basketball coach Kevin Reece remains optimistic on the prospect of Brunei basketball.

"Our boys played their best game in this tournament and although we lost, we considered the match a benchmark on what needs to be done to improve the national side further next year," said Reece.



"I feel that we can compete with many of the Thailand players if it was an all-local affair. But in the end, the pro game that Rising Star was accustomed to came through. For the Under-23s, I couldn't ask for more as they played their heart out for the flag," added the American.

The national cagers lost their first game 110-57 to Thailand's PEA on Sunday and were on the wrong end of a 112-59 result during Monday's match against Australian side Postnet Gators.

They were crushed 122-53 by Team Unity of United States on Tuesday before losing to CLS Knights of Indonesia 89-57 on Wednesday.

The Brunei Times