Yee Chun Leong
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN
CUCKOO emerged champions of the YOU.C1000 Veteran Basketball Cup after a wild ending against CJMM in the final on Wednesday.
They nervously hung on for a 72-70 victory to finish at the top of the podium at the BBA Court in Batu Bersurat.
Yap Chun Ping, who managed seven points, swished both his attempts from the charity stripe to make it a two-possession game at 72-68 with 12.5 seconds remaining.
CJMM then got a free basket courtesy of Santos off the inbounds with 8.6s to see things go down to the wire.
Elvin Requintin got a hand to the Cuckoo inbounds pass close to midcourt but Yap managed to recover to get the ball upcourt for them to run out the clock and secure the win.
Voon Yiew Ting, who played almost the entire 40 minutes, dropped 20 points for Cuckoo.
The pair of Esmond Tan and Kevin Tay added 16 each in the triumph.
On the other hand, Reymundo Maquiraya struggled early on but finished with a game-high of 21 points to pace CJMM.
The duo of Al Jauhali and Lu Yong were the other two in double figures with 15 apiece to a losing cause.
It was an ugly opening period despite action being end to end.
CJMM couldn't get anything to fall and Cuckoo, despite their pour ball handling leading to plenty of unforced turnovers, raced off to a nine-point lead.
CJMM steadied the ship and got back into the game slowly.
They went in front for the first time after Maquiraya completed a three-point play a minute into the second stanza to make it 15-14.
Both sides exchanged baskets and Jauhali found his range for three treys in the quarter to see them carry a 32-26 into the interval.
Both sides showed better poise after the break and limited their turnovers.
The match was tied several times and couldn't be separated as it remained deadlocked at 49-49 heading into the decisive frame.
It was a neck and neck battle throughout the fourth but CJMM were made to rue their missed attempts from the foul line.
Both teams were already in the penalty midway through.
The swing in momentum came with 2:20 to play.
Tan hit his first freethrow and missed the second but grabbed the offensive board.
It resulted in Voon completing a three-point play for a four-point swing to make it 69-62 with two minutes left.
CJMM went with the full court press and clawed their way back.
It was back to a two-point game after a long pass saw Requintin finish a layup with 32.5s to go leading to a pulsating end.
GHK edge Fateh for third place
Meanwhile, GHK took the bronze after hanging on for an 81-79 win over Fateh in the third place playoff.
Kenny Lim Teck Wee led all players with a high of 20 points for GHK.
Tse Tow Joon Yeen and Tan Ye Wei posted 16 points each while Kho Leang Teck notched 15 in the win.
On the other side, Fateh had distributed scoring with five players in double figures.
Gabriel Co dropped 17 points and Ryan Francisco added 14.
Michael Lagata poured 13 while the duo of Jameel Abdullah and Mario Pahimutang each chipped in 10 in a losing effort.
