Yee Chun Leong
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN
HUI Huang Enterprise were made to work for a 92-72 win over THEvent.Co to advance into the semi-finals of the YOU.C1000 Fuzhou Cup last night.
They looked like they were on their way to a comfortable victory after opening up a 17-point lead in the third quarter at the Fuzhou Shiyyi Association building in Berakas.
THEvent.Co turned things around by putting up a few stops and getting their shots to fall to bring the game to within two possessions.
They held Hui Huang to without a single field goal in the last three minutes to only trail 52-57 going into the final quarter.
They closed the deficit to only three point and it remained a one basket game with six minutes left in the game at 68-71 before Hui Huang scored 10 unanswered points to run away.
Benjamin Lim scored six straight points to make it 77-68 resulting in a timeout by THEvent.Co.
Hui Huang then scored the next two baskets before Nick hit a jumper to stop the rot.
Esmond Tan responded with back-to-back layups to put Hui Huang up 85-70 with two minutes left enroute to victory.
Hui Huang had distributed scoring with six players in double figures in the triumph.
Benjamin had a game-high of 19 points, including four three-pointers, to lead Hui Huang while Francis Barcellano added 17 to his name.
Tan notched 15 points while Wong Kim Gan contributed 13 points. The pair of Soon Kian Leong and Kevin Tay poured in 12 and 11 respectively.
On the other side, five players got into double digit scoring with Lim Yee Chen pacing THEvent.Co with 17 points.
Acosta contributed 16 points while Nick chipped in 12. The duo of Chiew and Mendoza each had 10 points to a losing cause.
Hui Huang now await the result of Beta Kitchen against TK Tea House in the final Group B quarter-final game tonight at 8.45pm to see which position they finish.
Beta Kitchen will need to win by a margin of at least seven points to progress to the last-four.
The second game tonight saw Bandar Estates stretched their unbeaten run in the competition to nine games after an 83-73 win.
