Yee Chun Leong
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN
THE national basketball team only have one target at the 21st Borneo City Basketball Invitational Tournament 2019 (Borneo Cup) in Kota Kinabalu this weekend - defend their crown.
Brunei captured the men’s title only for the second time after winning both their games on home soil last year.
They will start their title defence against Miri today before taking on Kota Kinabalu tomorrow. The Sultanate will then close out their campaign against Labuan on Sunday.
“As a team, our aim is to defend the title,” said point guard Ahmad Termizi Hj Noordeen in an interview with BruSports News yesterday.
“BBA (Brunei Basketball Association) has set winning the title as our goal and I believe we can create history for Brunei Basketball,” he added.
“The morale and confidence level of the team is high. We believe in each other, and the coach has set rotations and tactics to our strengths.
“For me, not winning the title with this team would be a failure,” continued Mizi.
Having kept the core intact from last year, Mizi also felt that preparations have gone well leading up to the three-day competition.
“We have been training for a good two months. The fact that the core of the team stays intact from last year helps a lot with the preparation,” explained Mizi.
“So it does feel like we have been training for more than two months,” he added.
When asked on which teams to watch out for, Mizi replied: “Miri and KK have been our toughest opponents for the past few years.
“We are looking at these two teams as our main threats,” he concluded.
