Yee Chun Leong
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN
THE national basketball team succumbed to an 85-67 defeat at the hands of Miri in their opening match of the Borneo Cup on Friday.
Lim Liang Wei led the way for the Sultanate with 24 points in the defeat at the BBA Court in Batu Bersurat.
The duo of Ahmad Termizi Hj Noordeen and Chan Yung Ken were the other in double figures with 11 points each.
On the other hand, Lu Yew Yi managed a game-high of 28 points to pace Miri.
Wee Zhong Chen added 14 points while the pair Barry Kong and Chan Soon Sheng had 12 each in the victory.
It was a high-tempo opening to the matchup with both sides going toe to toe.
But it was Miri who stuck their noses in front as they were easily slipping to the basket to score.
Brunei were taking shots from range but couldn't get it going.
Miri had the ball in the hands of Lu as he finished with 14 points in the opening frame to put his side up 32-21.
Brunei couldn't find a way through and back-to-back treys by Soon Sheng saw the advantage balloon to 18 points late in the second stanza.
Brunei came out with new found energy after the interval and cut the deficit to 10 points midway through.
Both sides missed a handful of shots as Miri carried a 65-50 lead going into the final period.
It was a 7-0 run by Brunei that got them back into the match.
Yung Ken connected on a three followed by back-to-back layups courtesy of Devon Lim changed the momentum in their favour.
He was fouled on the latter and saw his circus shot go in.
The Miri coach was whistled for a technical foul for dissent in the process but Lim failed to capitalise.
He missed both his attempts from the stripe as the scoreboard read 73-63 with over four minutes left.
Miri took a timeout and it worked to perfection as it resulted in back-to-back baskets by Lu.
Brunei called a timeout of their own to regroup but in contrast, turned the ball over resulting in another Lu basket as they closed out for the win.
The earlier game saw Kota Kinabalu edge Labuan 79-74.
