Yee Chun Leong
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN
EASYWAY clinched a bronze medal finish in the YOU.C1000 Cup after defeating Yuni-ku 81-71 in the third place playoff on Friday.
They had opened up a 20-point lead in the first half before Yuni-ku made it a contest by closing the gap to five points in the third frame.
Easyway were already up by double figures after the opening period with a 22-11 lead at the BBA Court in Batu Bersurat.
The result almost felt certain after Jonathan Lim converted layup to make it 39-19 with 2:30 left to the interval.
Yuni-ku looked disheartened and couldn't handle the rock with plenty of unforced turnovers.
Andy Sim was the only one keeping Yuni-ku in the game at that point with 10 first half points.
Easyway took their foot off the pedal after the break and soon the deficit was down to five after a trey by Jeremy Chu.
Yuni-ku went on a 15-0 run over a span of almost six minutes stretching across two periods.
Jonathan ended the rot with a strong layup and it woke Easyway from their slumber.
They kept their heads up to close out the third with a 53-43 advantage.
Yuni-ku managed to stay within reach by keeping it a two-possession match.
It was a 7-0 run that killed off any momentum for Yuni-ku as Easyway led 73-57 with over three minutes left.
They soon found themselves up 75-60 after Lim Liang Wei cut to the hoop before dishing a nice pass to Daniel Sim for an easy deuce.
Francis Juelar knocked down a couple from behind the arc but it proved a mere consolation as it came a little too late.
Jonathan led the way for Easyway with 18 points while Daniel notched 15.
Liang Wei put up 12 points, all in the second half, coming off the bench while the pair of Darren Lee and Jayden Chen had 11 apiece.
On the other hand, Andy dropped a game-high of 25 points for Yuni-ku.
The pair of Juelar and Matthew Jerickson poured in 12 each in the loss.
