Yee Chun Leong
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN
DEFENDING champions Wan Sing are one win away from retaining the YOU.C1000 Cup after hanging on for a 75-68 win over Easyway in the semi-finals on Wednesday.
They will face TK/CJMM in the final on Friday at 8.30pm at the BBA Court in Batu Bersurat.
With the game separated by a single possession down the stretch, Asi Medina came up clutch to knock down four consecutive freethrows to seal the victory.
Wan Sing were reliant on their starters as all five were the only players to get on the scoresheet.
Medina led the way with a game-high of 26 points while Eric Palanca notched 17.
Joven Dungog and Vinelson Escober Lico poured in 13 and 10 respectively while the other nine points was scored by Absar Amin.
It was a similar case for Easyway as Lim Liang Wei topscored for his side with 20 points.
Jake Chong dropped 16 and Jonathan Lim tallied 13 in the defeat.
It was evenly matched in the early going as Wan Sing led 16-12 at the end of the first period.
The encounter remained neck and neck as Easyway tied the game at 30-30 courtesy of a layup by Jonathan with under two minutes to the interval.
They took the lead after a quick outlet to Chong to finish leading to a timeout by Wan Sing.
Dungog replied with a three-pointer out of it and both sides traded baskets after to see Easyway ahead 36-35 at halftime.
It was end-to-end action with both sides pushing the tempo.
However, it was Wan Sing that took control as their opponents as Palanca put up 10 points in the period to see the gap grow to 62-50 heading into the decisive frame.
He was given a breather for the first three minutes of the quarter and back-to-back threes by Chong got Easyway to within 67-62.
Wan Sing's talisman Dungog picked up a cramp on his left leg with 6:20 on the clock and had to be taken out before returning a few minutes later.
Easyway went with man-to-man defence managed to subdue their opponents.
However, they failed to capitalise as they couldn't get their shots to go as well.
The scoreboard was stagnant for almost three minutes till Jayden Chen split his freethrows.
Medina finally got one to fall after picking up his own miss to make it 69-63 with 3:49 left on the clock.
It remained a two-possession game as Easyway were taking shots from the outside and missing them.
Wan Sing looked gassed but good play by Palanca to drive and draw the defence before laying it off for Dungog for the easy deuce gave them breathing space.
Chen then missed both his charities from the stripe and the next possession proved costly.
Wan Sing were allowed to run over a minute off the clock as they hustled for every offensive rebound.
When Easyway finally secured the rock, Liang Wei converted a three-point play at the other end to cut the deficit to 71-68 with 24 seconds left.
They went with fouling to stop the clock but Medina was cool as a cucumber to knock down all of his attempts late on to secure the win.
