Yee Chun Leong
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN
HANA BOYZ stormed to a 122-57 win over The Rookies to clinch the Under-18 title of the YOU.C1000 Cup on Friday.
They had five players hit double figures with Khael Tandoc above the rest with 34 points at the BBA Court in Batu Bersurat.
Nicholas Ting added 25 and Adrian Lee had 22 while Karim Menisy and Ting Ik Ruong poured in 12 and 10 respectively in the triumph.
On the other side, Arjay Castro topscored for the Rookies with 20 points and John Estrada was the other in double digit scoring with 14 to a losing cause.
The Rookies knocked down the first basket of the game and that was the only lead they saw in the entire encounter.
Hana Boyz, who had the advantage in physique, then went on a 14-0 run but a string of fouls allowed The Rookies to get back into the match.
Tandoc dominated the opening frame with 16 points as Hana Boyz opened up a 26-16 lead going into the second frame.
The Rookies had trouble getting past the Hana Boyz press allowing the latter to pour in the points in transition.
Castro knocked down a trey to make it an 11-point gap at 37-26 midway through the quarter.
Hana Boyz then closed out the half with 14 unanswered points to stay in control of the match.
It was more one-way street after the interval as Hana Boyz went on an 18-0 run in four minutes to cruise to victory.
Meanwhile, Honey Carsmart claimed the bronze after defeating Faze 62-45 in the third-place playoff.
Tiong Wei Xu notched the game-high of 23 points to lead Honey Carsmart.
Bernard Hii contributed 17 and Terrence Chieng chipped in 11 in the victory.
On the other side, Randy Law topscored for Faze with 14 points.
The competition resumes with two more matches on Saturday.
The Defender and Linktech are both in search of their first win in Group A at 7pm.
The second match pits Tech G Enterprise against JM Squad in Group B at 8.45pm.
