Yee Chun Leong
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN
PROPEL began their title defence in the women's category of the YOU.C1000 Cup with a 63-51 victory over Linktech in a repeat of last year's final.
Rachael Lee shot her way to a game-high of 20 points for Propel while Lim Guik Ting added 19 in the win.
On the other side, Chloe Chen topscored for Linktech with 14 points.
Angelyn Catalan was the other in double figures with 11 to a losing cause.
It was closely contested in the opening period at the BBA Court in Batu Bersurat.
Linktech carried a 14-10 lead into the second quarter after Michelle Carrido converted a three-point play just before the end.
Propel went in front for the first time after Lee converted a freethrow to make it 17-16 around three minutes in.
Linktech went without a point for over four minutes after the midway mark until Chen hit a mid range shot with 16 second left.
Lee then beat the buzzer to put Propel up 31-20 at the break.
She tallied 12 points in the turnaround as they outscored their opponents 21-6 in the period.
Propel built their lead to as large as 17 points in the third stanza.
Linktech tried to stay in the game and Chen knocked down a basket before the buzzer to trim the deficit to 47-34 going into the fourth.
They deployed full court man-to-man defence two minutes into the decisive quarter.
It proved successful resulting in Propel turning the ball over but they failed to make them count.
They struggled to score as Propel simply hung on for the the opening win.
The women's category will resume with D'Harith taking on MSSSBD on Saturday at 7pm.
